how to end a best friend essay

Relationships

“We’ve both grown, just not together.”

It isn’t always necessary to send a text to end a friendship. If you and a pal have drifted apart, you’ll probably reach out less and less often until it gets to the point where you no longer speak. This is the natural progression of many friendships as people get older, grow, and change — and that’s OK.

There are, however, quite a few circumstances where you may want to break up with a friend so that you can truly move on. In situations where a friendship is no longer in your best interests, it can be tempting to ghost or send an insincere text like, “Hey, I’m super busy but I would love to hang out when things calm down,” says mental health counselor Bernie Crowl, MHC-LP . But if you truly can’t see yourself getting together again, figuring out what texts to send to end a friendship is tough, but can ultimately spare their feelings.

You might also want to end a friendship over text if the person is toxic or draining to be around. Do they pick fights? Bring you down? Or have they betrayed your trust? “Texting can be used as an effective tool for creating a safe boundary as it reduces the ways in which the person can try to manipulate you,” says trauma-informed therapist Dr. Amelia Kelley . “By not being in person, or even on the phone, you can remain more grounded and choose how much of the interaction to participate in.” Once you end the friendship, you can block them and move on.

While it’s never easy to call off a friendship , sometimes it’s for the best. If you’re not sure where to start, these therapist-approved texts can help you break up with your old friend.

1 “I appreciate the invite, but my interests have shifted in the past few years and I just feel like we’ve drifted apart.”

Let’s say that one of your old party friends is really excited to get back into the bars now that they’re vaccinated, but you’ve come to appreciate quiet nights at home or have decided that you no longer want to drink . If they keep pressuring you to go out, Crowl recommends sending a text like this one to let them know where you stand.

2 “It’s hard to say this but I have to be honest and put myself first and not continue this friendship.”

If this friend doesn’t build you up like they used to — or if they actively tear you down — don’t hesitate to send this type of text. You don’t have to go into detail, especially if the other person doesn’t mean any harm. According to licensed behavioral therapist Sherese Ezelle, LMHC , you can still gently let them know that you won’t be available to hang out going forward.

3 “Due to recent conflict, I’m choosing to end this friendship.”

A text breakup like this one makes the most sense following a betrayal or big argument. If you’re feeling hurt or drained, send it and be done. “They may ask for further clarification but it is truly your choice whether or not you want to share anything further,” Kelley says. “No is a complete sentence and a boundary does not have to be justified.”

4 “I feel like this friendship isn’t healthy for me.”

If you don’t want to go into the details, Kelley says this text may be a good choice. “Again, you’re being clear and concise,” she says. “There is no need to justify why the relationship is hurting you unless you want to share those feelings.” If the friend gives you a hard time or doesn’t respect your boundaries, hit “block”.

5 “I want to be completely transparent. I’ve been feeling angry since we saw each other. This tends to happen when we spend time together, so I can no longer engage in this friendship.”

Here’s a similar text that’ll help explain where you’re at, says mental health therapist Emily Griffin, MA, LCPC . If the friend keeps pressing you to hang out, you may want to send it as a firm way to call things off once and for all.

The last thing you want is to lead someone on, Griffin says, especially if the person doesn’t realize that they’re tough to hang out with. While you don’t have to list all of their flaws, you can certainly share how you feel and why you need to back away.

6 “I need space from our friendship. Distance will help both of us understand who and what is important to us."

According to Dr. Easton Gaines , a licensed psychologist, it’s as important to define a friendship as it is to define a relationship . “Knowing how you feel and why you feel that way is paramount,” she tells Bustle. “What is your friend doing or not doing that is bothering you? How is this making you feel? Are you saddened, offended, frustrated?”

Send this text and then take some time to assess. If you do decide to move on, allow yourself to experience any tough emotions that arise. “It is likely that you have been reeling over this decision for quite some time,” Gaines says. “Once processed, which may be helpful with professional guidance, you will have a better appreciation for your limits and essentials.”

7 “I haven’t heard from you in forever and it really hurt my feelings.”

Sometimes folks have a good reason for going silent. If your friend has been busy dealing with their life, you may find that you’re able to give them space until they’re ready to reach out again. (Remember, think about how you’d want to be treated.)

That said, it’s also completely valid to feel hurt by a friend’s ongoing silence, especially if they left you hanging without explanation. In that case, Ezelle recommends sending a text like this one: “Not talking to you during this time really hurt my feelings, and I feel like in our friendship we should both be important.” Then let them know you’ll be focusing on your own needs going forward.

8 “We’ve both grown so much, but not together.”

Here’s another gentle way to let a friend know you want to go your separate ways . Ezelle says this is a simple, to-the-point way of calling off a friendship that’ll allow you to move on without leaving your friend to wonder what happened.

9 “Life has changed so much for me. I’ve done some self-reflecting and I think stepping back out into the world will look different for me.”

According to psychotherapist Lillyana Morales, LMHC , this is a great text to send when you want to shift who you interact with. If you’ve spent some time working on yourself — perhaps by going to therapy — you may realize that some old friendships no longer align with the new you.

You may want to follow up with a longer explanation, Morales says, like this one: “I wanted to reach out to let you know that I thought of you, and if I haven't said it in a while — I've appreciated all of history and memories we've created. I feel [emotion word]. I hope as you navigate these next chapters, you'll find a sense of [happiness, joy, contentment, satisfaction, etc.].”

10 “I care about you but being in this relationship is not something I’m able to focus on right now.”

If your circumstances have changed, Ezelle suggests sending this text as a way to let an old pal know you’ll be focusing your attention elsewhere.

You don’t have to rub it in or explicitly say you’ve moved on, but you should let them know you won’t be available going forward, especially if you know for sure that you won’t ever see them again.

11 “I feel like you don’t value me as a friend.”

According to licensed clinical professional counselor Shawnessa Devonish, LCPC, NCC , this text is the ideal way to cut things off with a friend who’s repeatedly let you down. While many friendships are reparable, especially if you have a heart-to-heart conversation, it’s often best to let go of connections that make you feel bad.

“In general, you may want to end a friendship if you experience intense feelings of betrayal or rejection as a result of their actions,” Devonish tells Bustle. “Due to this, it may be best to end the friendship, even if it is through text, to prevent yourself from developing any severe abandonment wounds .”

12 “I need to spare myself further discomfort.”

If this person is truly toxic , make sure you word the text in a way that can’t be misinterpreted. Relationship expert Sameera Sullivan suggests sending a message like this one: “I am mentally drained and have decided to spare myself from more discomfort by distancing myself from you. The decision has already been made, so please know that nothing can convince me otherwise at this point. Please don’t reach out again."

13 "I've tried to have this conversation in person many times. But it's clear you aren't hearing me. I don't want to be friends anymore."

Relationship therapist Jordan Pickell, MCP RCC recommends this text if the friend isn’t listening or if they keep crossing boundaries. “Maybe you've tried to talk about your differences face-to-face and they aren't hearing you, so you've decided to switch modes of communication,” she tells Bustle. In this scenario, a text may help them understand.

14 “I appreciate your patience, but I’m not ready to be around others just yet. I just need a little space. I hope you understand.”

If you’re going through a rough patch in your life, send a text like this one to let a friend know where you stand. “Be upfront and honest with your feelings,” says counselor Brianna Wolf , noting it’ll help them fully understand why you’ve been MIA so they can give you the space and support you need.

While it might feel as if you want to call off the friendship, you may feel a lot better once you take some time to yourself. That’s why there’s no need to be black and white about every connection. Instead, let the friend know you need time to figure things out, then see how you feel in the future.

15 “I’m down for coffee.”

You may also decide that you’d like to remain friends, just not in the same capacity. “Sometimes a friendship breakup is about changing the level of intimacy,” Pickell says. “Maybe you're OK to attend the same gatherings, but you don't want a one-on-one relationship anymore. Maybe you are open to a relationship in the future. It's helpful to be clear about that.”

Bernie Crowl, MHC-LP , mental health counselor

Dr. Amelia Kelley , trauma-informed therapist

Sherese Ezelle, LMHC , licensed behavioral therapist

Emily Griffin, MA, LCPC , mental health therapist

Dr. Easton Gaines , licensed psychologist

Lillyana Morales, LMHC , psychotherapist

Shawnessa Devonish, LCPC, NCC , licensed clinical professional counselor

Sameera Sullivan , relationship therapist

Jordan Pickell, MCP RCC , relationship therapist

Brianna Wolf , counselor

This article was originally published on May 2, 2021

Friday essay: on the ending of a friendship

Emeritus Professor of Creative writing, The University of Melbourne

Disclosure statement

Kevin John Brophy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Melbourne provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

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Friendship is an incomparable, immeasurable boon to me, and a source of life — not metaphorically but literally.

• Simone Weil

About eight years ago, I went to dinner with a dear friend I had known for more than 40 years. It would be the last time we would see each other and by the end of that evening I was deeply shaken. But more lasting and more unsettling than this has been the feeling of loss without his friendship. It was a sudden ending but it was also an ending that lasted for me well beyond that evening. I have worried since then at what kind of friend I am to my friends, and why a friendship can suddenly self-destruct while others can so unexpectedly bloom.

My friend and I were used to going to dinner together, though it had become an increasingly tricky matter for us. We had been seeing each other more infrequently, and our conversations had been tending towards repetition. I still enjoyed his passion for talk, his willingness to be puzzled by life’s events, our comically growing list of minor ailments as we entered our sixties, and the old stories he fell back on — usually stories of his minor triumphs, such as the time his car burst into fire, was declared a write-off by insurance, and ended in an auction house where he bought it back with part of the insurance payout and only minor repairs to be made. There were stories of his time as a barman in one of Melbourne’s roughest pubs. I suppose in a lot of long-lasting friendships it is these repeated stories of the past that can fill the present so richly.

Nevertheless, both his opinions and mine seemed to have become too predictable. Even his desire to come up with the most unpredictable viewpoint on any problem was a routine I expected from him. Each of us knew the weaknesses in the other’s thinking, and we had learned not to go too far with some topics, which were of course the most interesting and important ones.

He knew how politically correct I could be, and shrewdly enough he had no time for my self-righteousness, the predictability of my views on gender, race and climate. I understood this. He knew too that his fiercely independent thinking was often just the usual rant against greenies or lefties. Something had begun to fail in our friendship, but I could not properly perceive this or speak of it.

We were a contrasting pair. He was a big man with an aggressive edge to his gregarious nature, while I was lean, short and physically slight next to him, a much more reserved person altogether. I liked his size because big men have been protective figures in my life. At times when I felt threatened I would ask him to come with me to a meeting or a transaction, and just stand next to me in his big way. During one long period of trouble with our neighbours he would visit when the tension was high to show his formidable presence and his solidarity with us.

I was always reading and knew how to talk books, while he was too restless to read much. He knew how to sing, bursting into song occasionally when we were together. He had been unable to work professionally since a breakdown that was both physical and mental. By contrast, I was working steadily, never quite as free with my time as he was.

Nearly two years before our last dinner together his wife had suddenly left him. As it turned out, she had been planning her departure for some time, but when she went he was taken by surprise. I saw a more confused and fragile side of him during those months when we would meet and talk through how he was dealing with their counselling sessions, and then how the negotiations were proceeding over belongings and finally the family house. He was learning to live alone for the first time since he had been a young man, and was exploring what it might be like to seek out new relationships.

Read more: Research Check: is it true only half your friends actually like you?

A safe haven

We had met when I was a first-year university student boarding at my grandmother’s home in an inner Melbourne suburb. I was studying for a Bachelor of Arts, staying up through the nights, discovering literature, music, history, cask wine, dope, girls and ideas.

He lived in a flat a few doors away in a street behind my grandmother’s place, and I remember it was the local parish youth group, or the remnants of one, that used to meet in his flat. In my friend’s flat we would lie around the floor, half a dozen of us, drinking, flirting, arguing about religion or politics until the night was strung out in our heads, tight and thin and vibrating with possibilities. I loved that sudden intimate and intellectually rich contact with people my own age.

My friend and I started up a coffee lounge in an old disused shopfront as a meeting place for youth who would otherwise be on the street. I was the one who became immersed in the chaotic life of the place as students, musicians, misfits, hopeful poets and petty criminals floated through the shop, while my friend kept his eye on the broader picture that involved real estate agents, local councils, supplies of coffee, income and expenditure.

Perhaps the experience helped delay my own adulthood, allowing me time to try out a bohemian, communal alternative lifestyle that was so important to some of us in the early 1970s. My friend, though, was soon married. It was as if he had been living a parallel life outside our friendship, outside the youth group, coffee shop, jug band, drugs and misadventures of our project.

This did not break us up, and in fact after his marriage he became another kind of friend. I was at times struggling to find some steady sense of myself. Sometimes in those years I would not be able to talk or even be near others, and I remember once when I felt like this I went to my newly married friend’s home, and asked if I could lie on the floor in the corner of their lounge room for a few days until I felt better.

They indulged me. I felt it was this haven that saved me then, giving me the time to recoup and giving me a sense that there was somewhere I could go where the world was safe and neutral.

In time, and more bumpily and uncertainly than my friend, I was with a partner raising a family. He was often involved in our children’s birthdays, other celebrations, our house-moving, and just dropping in on family meals. It worked for us. I remember him lifting our cast iron wood-burning stove into its place in our first renovated Brunswick cottage. He lived in a more sprawling home near bushland on the edge of Melbourne, so one of my pleasures became the long cycling trips out to see him.

My partner and I were embraced by a local community thanks to the childcare centre, kinders, schools and sport. Lasting friendships (for us and for our children) grew in the tentative, open-ended, slightly blindly feeling way of friendships. Through this decade and a half though, the particular friendship with my songful friend held, perhaps to the surprise of both of us.

‘Tolerating much, for the sake of best intentions’

In his thoroughly likeable 1993 book on friendship , the political scientist Graham Little wrote under the bright light of writings by Aristotle and Freud, that the purest kind of friendship “welcomes the different ways people are alive to life and tolerates much in a friend for the sake of best intentions”.

Here perhaps is the closest I have seen to a definition of friendship at its best: a stance imbued with sympathy, interest and excitement directed at another despite all that otherwise shows we are flawed and dangerous creatures.

On that evening, the evening of the last time we went out to dinner together, I did push my friend towards one of the topics we usually avoided. I had been wanting him to acknowledge and even apologise for his behaviour towards some young women he had spoken to, I thought, lewdly and insultingly nearly a year before in my home at a party. The women and those of us who had witnessed his behaviour felt continuing tension over his refusal to discuss the fact that he had wanted to speak so insultingly to them and then had done it in our home in front of us. For me, there was some element of betrayal, not only in the way he had behaved but in his continued refusal to discuss what had happened.

The women were drunk, he said, just as he had said the last time I tried to talk to him about this. They were wearing almost nothing, he said, and what he’d said to them was no more than they were expecting. My friend and I were sitting in a popular Thai restaurant on Sydney Road: metal chairs, plastic tables, concrete floor. It was noisy, packed with students, young couples and groups out for a cheap and tasty meal. A waitress had put menus, water and beer on our table while she waited for us to decide on our meals. Wanting to push finally past this impasse, I pointed out to him that the women had not insulted him, he had insulted them.

If that’s the way you want it, he replied, and placed his hands on each side of the table, hurling it into the air and walking out of the restaurant as table, bottles, glasses, water and beer came clattering and smashing down around me. The whole restaurant fell silent. I could not move for some time. The waitress began mopping up the floor around me. Someone called out, “Hey, are you all right?”

This was the last time I saw or heard from him. For many months, I thought of him every day, then slowly I thought of him less often, until now I can think of him more or less at will, and not find myself ashamed of the way I went for him in a conversation where I should have been perhaps more alive to whatever was troubling him.

Improvised, tentative

For some years after this, I felt I had to learn how to be myself without him. I have read articles and essays since then about how pitiful men can be at friendship. We are apparently too competitive, we base our friendships on common activities, which means we can avoid talking openly about our feelings and thoughts. I don’t know about this “male deficit model”, as some sociologists call it, but I do know that the loss of this friendship took with it a big part of my shared personal history at that time. It dented my confidence in ever having properly known this man or understood our friendship — or in knowing how secure any friendship might be.

I was drawn to read and re-read Michel de Montaigne’s gentle and strangely extreme essay on friendship where he was so certain that he knew with perfection what his friend would think and say and value. He wrote of his friend, Etienne de Boëtie, “Not only did I know his mind as well as I knew my own but I would have entrusted myself to him with greater assurance than to myself.”

Against this perfection of understanding between friends, there is George Eliot’s odd excursion into science fiction in her 1859 novel, The Lifted Veil . Her narrator, Latimer, finds he can perceive perfectly clearly the thoughts of all the people around him. He becomes disgusted and deeply disturbed by the petty self-interest he apparently discovers within everyone.

After 40 years of shared history, there was not the disgust Eliot writes of, nor Montaigne’s perfect union of mind and trust between me and my burly friend, but there was, I had thought, a foundation of knowledge whereby we took each other’s differences into ourselves, as well as our common histories of the cafe we had run, and as it happened our common serving of time in semi-monastic seminaries before we’d met — differences and similarities that had given us, I thought, ways of being in sympathy with each other while allowing for each other.

Read more: Guide to the classics: Michel de Montaigne's Essays

Montaigne’s dearest friend, Etienne, had died, and his essay was as much about the meaning of this loss as about friendship. His big idea was loyalty, and I think I understand that, though not in the absolute way Montaigne wrote of it.

Loyalty is only real if it is constantly renewed. I worry that I have not worked enough at some friendships that have come into my life, but have let them happen more passively than the women I know who spend such time, and such complicated time, exploring and testing friendships. The sudden disappearance of my friend left me with an awareness of how patched-together, how improvised, clumsy and tentative even the most secure-seeming friendship can be.

When the philosopher and brilliant essayist, Simone Weil wrote shortly before she died in 1943,

I may lose, at any moment, through the play of circumstances over which I have no control, anything whatsoever that I possess, including things that are so intimately mine that I consider them as myself. There is nothing that I might not lose. It could happen at any moment ….

she seemed to be touching on the difficult truth that we run on luck and hope and chance much of the time. Why haven’t I worked harder at friendships, when I know that they provide the real meaning in my life?

Some years ago, when I was told by a medical specialist that I had a 30% chance of having cancer, as I waited for the results of a biopsy, I remember that in response to these dismal odds I had no desire to go back to work, no desire to even read — all I wanted to do was spend time with friends.

Inner worlds laid waste

To know what it is we care about, this is a gift. It should be straightforward to know this and keep it present in our lives, but it can prove to be difficult. Being the reader that I am, I have always turned to literature and fiction for answers or insights into those questions that seem to need answering.

I realised some time after the ending of my friendship that I had been reading novels dealing with friendship, and was not even sure how consciously I had chosen them.

For instance, I read The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber, a novel about a Christian preacher, Peter Leigh, sent to convert aliens in a galaxy ludicrously far from earth on a planet with an equally unlikely atmosphere benign to its human colonisers.

It is a novel about whether Leigh can be any kind of adequate friend to his wife left behind on Earth, and whether his new feelings for these aliens amounts to friendship. Though my suspension of disbelief was precarious, I found myself caring about these characters and their relationships, even the grotesquely shapeless aliens. Partly I cared about them because the book read like an essay testing ideas of friendship and loyalty that were important and urgent to the writer.

I also read at that time Haruki Murakami’s novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage , a book that came with a little game of coloured cards and stickers, and I found that I cared about Tsukuru Tazaki too, for I felt all along that Murakami’s character was a thin and endearing disguise for himself (what a beautiful word that is, “en-dearing”).

The novel centred on lost friendships. I heard a tone in its voice that was the oddly flat, persistent, vulnerable and sincere searching of a man for connection with others. If Murakami’s novel has a proposition it wishes to test it would be that we only know ourselves in what images of ourselves we receive back from our friends. Without our friends we become invisible, lost.

In both those novels, the friendships are crashing to pieces in slow motion in front of the reader’s helpless eyes. I wanted to shake those characters, tell them to stop and think about what they were doing, but at the same time I saw in them mirrors of myself and my experiences.

I read John Berger too , on the way a human looks across an abyss of incomprehension when looking at another animal. Though language seems to connect us, it might be that language also distracts us from the actual abyss of ignorance and fear between all of us as we look, across, at each other. In his book on the savage mind , Lévi-Strauss quotes a study of Canadian Carrier Indians living on the Bulkley River who were able to cross that abyss between species, believing they knew what animals did and what their needs were because their men had been married to the salmon, the beaver and the bear.

I have read essays by Robin Dunbar on the evolutionary limits to our circles of intimacy , where he suggests that for most of us there needs to be three or maybe five truly close friends. These are the ones we lean towards with tenderness and open ourselves to with endless curiosity — those in whom we seek only the good.

My partner can name quickly four friends who qualify for her as part of this necessary circle. I find I can name two (and she is one of them), then a constellation of individual friends whose closeness to me I can’t easily measure. It is this constellation that sustains me.

Recently I was away from home for three months. After two weeks away I wrote a list in the back of my diary of the friends I was missing. A little more than a dozen of these were the friends, men and women, with whom I need contact, and with whom conversations are always open-ended, surprising, intellectually stimulating, sometimes intimate, and often fun. With each of them I explore a slightly different but always essential version of myself. Graham Little wrote that “ideal soulmates are friends who are fully aware that each has himself as his main life project”.

To live this takes some effort of imagination, and with my friend at dinner that night I might in myself have been refusing to make this effort.

There are also, it occurs to me, the friends who came as couples, with whom my partner and I share time as couples. This is itself another manifestation of friendship, one that crosses over into community, tribe and family — and no less precious than the individual intimacy of a personal friendship. For reasons I can’t properly fathom, the importance of this kind of time with coupled friends has deepened as I have grown through the decades of my fifties and sixties.

Perhaps it is that the dance of conversation and ideas is so much more complex and pleasurable when there are four or more contributing. It could be too that I am absolved from the responsibility of really working at these friendships in the way one must when there are two of us. Or it might be the pang and stimulus of the knowledge that opportunities to be together are brutally diminishing as we grow older.

But to lose an individual friend from one’s closest circle is to have large tracts of one’s inner world laid waste for a time. My feelings over the end of this particular friendship were a kind of grief mixed with bewilderment.

It was not that the friendship was necessary to my existence, but that perhaps through habit and sympathy it had become a fixed part of my identity. Robin Dunbar would say that by stepping away from this friendship I had made room for someone else to slip in to my circle of most intimate friends, but isn’t it the point of such close friends that they are in some important sense irreplaceable? This is the source of much of our distress when such friendships end.

Still learning

When I told people about what had happened in the restaurant that night, they would say, reasonably, “Why don’t you patch things up and resume your friendship?”

As I imagined how a conversation might go if I did meet my friend again, I came to understand that I had been a provocation to him. I had ceased to be the friend he needed, wanted or imagined.

What he did was dramatic. He might have called it merely dramatic. I felt it as threatening. Though I cannot help but think I provoked him. And if we had “patched” a friendship back together, on whose terms would this have been conducted? Would it always be that I would have to agree not to press him on questions that might lead him to throw over some table between us again?

Or worse, would I have to witness his apology, forgive him myself, and put him on his best behaviour for the rest of our friendship?

Neither of those outcomes would have patched much together. I had been hurting too over what I saw as his lack of willingness or interest to understand the situation from my point of view. And so it went inside me as the table and the water and the beer and the glasses came crashing down around me. I had been, in a way, married to my friend, even if he was a salmon or a bear — a creature across an abyss from me. Perhaps this was the only way out of that marriage. Perhaps he had been preparing for (moving towards?) this moment more consciously than I had been.

The ending of this friendship, it is clear, left me looking for its story. It was as if all along there must have been a narrative with a trajectory carrying us in this direction. A story is of course a way of testing whether an experience can take on a shape. Murakami’s and Faber’s novels are not themselves full-blown stories, for there is almost no plot, no shape, to their stumbling episodic structures, and oddly enough in both books the self-doubting lovers might or might not find that close communion with another somewhere well beyond the last page of each novel.

These novels cohere round a series of questions rather than events: what do we know and what can we know about others, what is the nature of the distance that separates one person from another, how provisional is it to know someone anyway, and what does it mean to care about someone, even someone who is a character in a novel?

When an Indian says he is married to a salmon, this can be no stranger than me saying I spent a couple of weeks on a humid planet in another galaxy with an astronaut who is a Christian preacher and an inept husband, or I spent last night in Tokyo with an engineer who builds railway stations and believes himself to be colourless, though at least two women have told him he is full of colour. But do I go to this story-making as a way of keeping my experiences less personal and more cerebral?

When I got home that night eight years ago, I sat at my kitchen table, shaking, hugging myself, talking to my grown-up children about what happened. It was the talking that helped — a narrative taking shape.

Dunbar, like me, like all of us, worries at the question of what makes life so richly present to us, and why friendships seem to be at the core of this meaningfulness. He has been surveying Americans with questions about friendship for several decades, and he concludes that for many of us the small circle of intimate friendships we experience is reducing.

We are apparently lucky now, on average, if there are two people in our lives we can approach with tenderness and curiosity, with that assumption that time will not matter as we talk in a low, murmuring, hive-warm way to a close friend.

My friend cannot be replaced, and it might be that we did not in the end imagine each other fully enough or accurately enough as we approached that last encounter. I don’t know precisely what our failure was. The shock of what happened and the shock of the friendship ending has over the time since that dinner become a part of my history in which I remember feeling grief but am no longer caught in confused anger or guilt over it. The story of it might not have ended but it has subsided.

Perhaps in all friendships we are not only, at our best, agreeing to encountering the unique and endlessly absorbing presence of another person, but unknown to us we’re learning something about how to approach the next friendship in our lives. There is something comically inept and endearing about the possibility that one might still be learning how to be a friend right up to the end of life.

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It Sucks, But Sometimes Ending a Friendship Is Necessary—Here's How to Do It

Some people just aren't meant to stay in our lives forever

Verywell / Zoe Hansen

• Reasons for Friend Break-Ups

Healthy Ways to End a Friendship

• What to Expect

Frequently Asked Questions

Let's be honest, friend breakups are sometimes even harder than romantic ones. The bond of a friendship is a unique soul connection that has nothing to do with your looks or expectations of the future.

Friendships are free from many of the rules and qualifiers of a romantic relationship, making them more organic and pure in many ways. And where we are at least somewhat prepared, for a romantic relationship to potentially end, we are generally unprepared for the end of a friendship.

But the reality is that people grow and change throughout their lives and sometimes we are no longer a good fit—sometimes they're no longer a fit for us either. Sometimes our trust is betrayed , or maybe something was said that can't be taken back.

Unlike romantic relationships in which there are clearer precedents about how to break up, the same is not true for friendships. This can leave you in a strange sort of limbo where you no longer want to be friends with the person but don't know how to end the friendship either.

It's complicated and painful no matter what, but there are some protocols and generally accepted dos and don'ts when it comes to breaking up with a friend.

At a Glance

Breaking up a friendship can be just as stressful and emotionally draining as ending a romantic relationship. Be kind to yourself afterward. It's normal to feel sad, frustrated, or angry. The approach you take is up to you and depends on the reasons for ending the friendship. Some possibilities are having a talk, gradually fading out, or ending it cold turkey. Keep on top of your mental health to ensure that the end of the friendship does not cause additional problems.

Why End a Friendship?

Before you decide how to break up with a friend, it's helpful to understand the reasons why you no longer want to be friends with this particular person. This can make it easier to move forward as you end the friendship.

One way to achieve this goal is by journaling your feelings . This allows you a safe space to get your thoughts out without discussing them with others, which you may not want to do until they are clear in your own mind.

Reasons you might identify for wanting to end a friendship include:

• Change of circumstances : Your lives have changed in that you no longer work together, go to the same school, or otherwise interact with each other in the same way.
• Increased distance : You've grown apart in terms of interests or commitments, or one of you has physically moved, creating a situation where you don't see each other as often as you once did.
• Mental health reasons : Your friend is deceitful or negative, spending more time cutting you down than building you up. Or you simply no longer enjoy the friendship like you used to.
• Opposing values : Your values have become opposed in some way, creating conflict in the friendship.
• Relationship toxicity : The friend has become a toxic person in your life, whether due to their attitude or behavior.

Know that a friend shouldn't ask you to compromise your integrity, go against your values or commitments, tell a lie, or hurt someone. Although it may feel like a significant loss to lose a friend, someone who is no longer making your life better does not deserve that space in your life.

Recognizing a Toxic Friendship

In general, a healthy relationship is one in which both people are giving and taking equally. In a toxic relationship , one person will often do more of the taking and the other, more of the giving. Pay attention to how you feel the next time you're around this person and how you feel after spending time with them.

Signs of a toxic friendship include:

• Your friend doesn't show any interest in your life.
• They often lie, manipulate, and/or try to control you.
• They don't support you or show up for you. They're unreliable.
• You feel neglected or judged by them.
• You feel emotionally drained after you spend time with them.

If this person is someone who lifts your spirits and gives you energy, you might consider giving the friendship another try. However, if their negative impact on your life outweighs the positive, you may be in a toxic relationship.

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In general, there are four healthy options when ending a friendship. In some cases, you may use a combination of these strategies.

The Gradual Fade-Out

This tactic involves letting the friendship come to a natural close by gradually reducing social interaction with the other person. This is akin to taking the stitches out of a garment versus tearing it apart. Gradually fading out of the friendship might be a good option if you are afraid of confrontation , if the person is likely not to listen or accept what you are saying, or for toxic situations.

In general, fading out of a friendship is an attempt to avoid hurt feelings. Instead of laying your feelings on the line, you become too busy to get together or generally hard to reach. You might text instead of call, fade out of the person's social media (unfollowing them or muting their account as needed), take a long time when getting back in touch, answer with short replies, etc.

You are doing things that might naturally happen in a friendship that is fading—you're just choosing to do them intentionally to exit the friendship.

While fading out of friendship may seem kinder, it could drag on if the friend does not take the hint. In that case, you might be putting that person through a stressful situation as they try to guess what is going on or why you've suddenly disappeared.

At the same time, the fade-out might be your best option if the friendship is toxic and you don't want to have to explain yourself, if you've been harmed by the person, or if you don't care enough anymore to give them an explanation.

Having a Talk

If you determine that a gradual fade-out is not appropriate or if it ends up not working, you might need to have a talk with your friend . This is similar to a talk you would have in a romantic relationship to determine where each of you stands and to talk about the future.

• Step 1 : Ask the person to meet you for coffee to chat. If you're concerned about your physical or emotional safety, you may decide to contact them via text, over the phone, or by email instead.
• Step 2 : Have a goal for your talk. Think about what you want to achieve. Do you want to clear up a miscommunication, explain resentment, address an old argument, or set boundaries in the relationship ? Whatever it is that you hope to achieve, it needs to be clear in your head before you meet.
• Step 3 : Start out with a statement that opens the doors for more conversation. For example, you might say, "I've noticed some patterns in our friendship in the past few months that have been bothering me. I wondered if we could talk about it."
• Step 4 : Talk about how you are feeling, not what the other person has done wrong. Keep your goals for the conversation in mind. Remember to listen as much as you talk.

Focus on using "I" statements when you speak. An "I" statement, such as "I feel sad when you don't show up after we've made plans," puts the emphasis on your feelings instead of placing blame only on your friend.

Even if you're angry or upset with your friend, it might be less stressful for both of you if you let them down easily. Tell them what you do appreciate about them. Just because you're ending the friendship doesn't mean you don't value the time you spent together.

A talk can be a stepping stone to the end of a friendship, but you might also find that you are able to resolve your differences and fix the friendship instead.

Taking a Break

You may determine from having a talk that your differences can't be resolved. If that's the case, what do you do? You could immediately terminate the friendship or you could decide to take a break, much the same way people sometimes take breaks in romantic relationships .  

Taking a break can have many positives. It gives you:

• A fresh perspective on the friendship
• A moment to calm down if you are upset
• An opportunity to miss your friend if you were spending too much time together
• Time to reevaluate the friendship

You can give any number of reasons for taking a break. If you prefer to be vague, you might say that you are going to be extra busy for a couple of weeks. If you've just had a talk, you could say that you need time to digest everything you've discussed. Set a time in the future to reconvene, or suggest that you will get in touch when you feel you are ready.

While on the break, you can always mute or unfollow their social media account to provide some added distance. You might find that clearing the mental space this friend once occupied can be a helpful refresher and benefit the relationship.

If you choose to continue the friendship, be sure that both of you communicate your boundaries and expectations moving forward.

Ending Things Immediately

Sometimes it is impossible to avoid the chaos that happens when a friendship ends. This is true if you are dealing with a toxic friend or someone who does not respect the boundaries that you try to set. But ending this type of unhealthy friendship is important as it can improve your personal well-being .

In this situation, simply state that your needs are not being met in the friendship. Wish the other person all the best in the future. This type of friendship break-up can be good in that it is unambiguous and clear, and you get a chance to voice any issues that you've been holding back. At the same time, it can be awkward to confront someone in this manner.

This strategy is most appropriate if you've known someone a long time and feel they deserve the respect of a final goodbye, or if someone does something so awful that it would be hard to ignore. At some point, you could simply say, "Goodbye, I need to go." If it helps, write a little script that expresses what you are feeling. 

Ghosting —ending communication with someone without telling them—is a controversial topic. But sometimes it's okay to end a friendship without speaking to the other person.

In relationships where there is manipulation, physical or emotional abuse , or the violation of boundaries, you don't owe the person an explanation for why you're ending the friendship. Your first priority is to keep yourself safe and not subject yourself to further stress, especially if your safety is at risk.

Block their number, block them on social media, and let any mutual friends know that you will no longer be engaging with this person.

Unhelpful Ways to End a Friendship

While circumstances surrounding the end of a friendship vary, it may be helpful to avoid certain ways of handling a friend breakup (even one involving a toxic person), including:

• Becoming hostile or aggressive
• Enlisting other friends to end the friendship for you
• Seeking revenge (such as posting negative things about them on social media )

What to Expect When a Friendship Ends

Though you may have plenty of valid reasons for ending a friendship, this doesn't necessarily protect you or your former friend from the feelings that go along with a friend breakup.

Remember that feeling sad that a friendship ends doesn't mean that you made the wrong decision. Having an idea of your friend's possible reaction and what you'll feel after the breakup can help you mentally prepare for the end of the friendship.

From Your Friend

They may react in the following ways:

• Asking if it's possible to convert the friendship into a different form of relationship
• Feeling hurt and becoming defensive
• Not understanding why you want to end the friendship
• Trying to manipulate you back into the friendship

If your friend chooses to escalate the conversation into an argument or displays any aggressive or hostile behavior, avoid engaging with them. Try to calmly leave the situation and get to a safe place as soon as possible.

If you're meeting with your friend in person, let a trusted loved one know where you'll be and check in with them when you're done. You might even have a loved one waiting for you to pick you up or to meet up with you at a nearby coffee shop or store.

For Yourself

You may be surprised to learn that a friendship can be saved or converted into something else. It's also okay to tell your friend that you need time to decide and that you can continue the conversation soon. Walk away and think about your options. Try not to let your friend's emotions sway you into making a decision you're not comfortable making.

You might end a friendship over the phone or via text if you're worried your friend will try to manipulate you into staying friends. If they don't accept your decision, you don't have to engage with them in an argument. You can excuse yourself from the conversation, wish them the best, and block their number.

You can't control whether your other friends continue seeing the person you broke up with. Let mutual friends know you'd appreciate a heads-up if there's a group gathering where this person will be, so you can make a decision beforehand about whether you'll attend.

Though many people have revenge fantasies or wish they could "get back" at an old friend, try to let these go. Your mental health can be negatively affected by constant rumination about your old friend .

Do your best to not re-engage after ending a friendship. Trust yourself and your decision to move on. Remember, you'll probably feel at least a little sad, and that's okay.

If you're having trouble dealing with the aftermath of a friend breakup, talk to a qualified mental healthcare professional who can help you learn healthy coping mechanisms to deal with these tough emotions.

Keep in Mind

Breaking up a friendship can be just as stressful and emotionally draining as ending a romantic relationship . Be kind to yourself afterward. It's normal to feel sad, frustrated, or angry.

The approach you take is up to you and depends on the reasons for ending the friendship. Some possibilities are having a talk, gradually fading out, or ending it cold turkey. Keep on top of your mental health to ensure that the end of the friendship does not cause additional problems.

Some options include telling the person directly that you are ending the friendship. Or, you might allow the friendship to fade away by communicating less over time. If someone is violating your boundaries or if you feel unsafe, you might choose to discontinue all communication with them immediately.

You might start off by saying how you feel about the friendship using "I" statements. Avoid blaming the other person. You can add that you appreciate the time you've spent together. Set a boundary, such as "I feel it's best if we don't speak or see each other anymore." You can end the message by wishing them the best moving forward.

Instead of insulting the person or blaming them, take accountability for how you feel and why you want to end the relationship. You can tell them what you do appreciate about them and wish them well. Ultimately, you can't control whether someone's feelings are hurt. But you can try to avoid unnecessary fighting.

Try to approach the person without anger or animosity. Though you may be upset, try not to judge, criticize, or yell at them. Tell them how you feel and try to keep the interaction peaceful. If they do become hostile, you don't have to engage. Leave an aggressive situation. If they become hostile over the phone, you can choose to block their number and end communication.

Stanford University.  The ethics of manipulation .

Khullar TH, Kirmayer MH, Dirks MA. Relationship dissolution in the friendships of emerging adults: How, when, and why? J Soc Pers Relation . 2021;38(11):3243-3264. doi:10.1177/02654075211026015

Rogers SL, Howieson J, Neame C. I understand you feel that way, but I feel this way: the benefits of I-language and communicating perspective during conflict .  PeerJ . 2018;6:e4831. doi:10.7717/peerj.4831

Kansky J, Allen JP. Making sense and moving on: The potential for individual and interpersonal growth following emerging adult breakups .  Emerg Adulthood . 2018;6(3):172-190. doi:10.1177/2167696817711766

LeFebvre LE, Allen M, Rasner RD, Garstad S, Wilms A, Parrish C. Ghosting in emerging adults’ romantic relationships: The digital dissolution disappearance strategy . Imagin Cogn Pers. 2019;39(2):125-150. doi:10.1177/0276236618820519

Goldner L, Lev-Wiesel R, Simon G. Revenge fantasies after experiencing traumatic events: Sex differences . Front Psychol. 2019;10:886. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00886

Michl LC, McLaughlin KA, Shepherd K, Nolen-Hoeksema S. Rumination as a mechanism linking stressful life events to symptoms of depression and anxiety: longitudinal evidence in early adolescents and adults .  J Abnorm Psychol . 2013;122(2):339-352. doi:10.1037/a0031994

Brent LJN, Chang SWC, Gariépy JF, Platt ML. The neuroethology of friendship . Ann N Y Acad Sci . 2014;1316:1–17. doi:10.1111/nyas.12315

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By Arlin Cuncic, MA Arlin Cuncic, MA, is the author of The Anxiety Workbook and founder of the website About Social Anxiety. She has a Master's degree in clinical psychology.

How To Write a My Best Friend Essay

Definition: What Is a My Best Friend Essay?

Write about what you know is sage advice often given to fledgling writers. And what do many of our young students know more about than their trusty sidekick, who is a constant presence through thick and thin?

A My Best Friend Essay is precisely what it sounds like; an essay the student writes that is focused on their closest pal’s endearing attributes (and otherwise).

However, the My Best Friend Essay is more than just a chance for students to wax lyrical about their BFFs. It is an authentic opportunity for students to hone their composition skills and exercise their creative flair. 

All this while talking about one of their best mate – not bad!

STRUCTURING a My Best Friend Essay

This is an essay. It says so right there in the title! Just how complex the structure of a student’s essay is will depend on essential factors such as age and ability. However, the 5-paragraph essay structure is a perfect framework for this type of composition.

One of the most beautiful aspects of the 5-paragraph essay is that it is easily modified to differentiate between lower or higher ability students by simply adjusting the number of paragraphs. The essay will still contain the same essential elements of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, regardless of how long it is.

The 5-paragraph (or hamburger) essay is a craft in itself and much too broad a topic to go into at length. Check out our complete guide here if you want more detail on this handy essay template.

Briefly though, in essence, the 5-paragraph essay comprises three parts:

• The Introduction : The opening paragraph will orient the reader to the topic of the essay, in this case, by introducing the show’s star, the best friend .
• The Body : In the traditional 5-paragraph essay, this makes up three of the five paragraphs. In this type of essay, the student will use these paragraphs to flesh out the main reasons they value their friend, or (at a more advanced level) they will tell a story about them that illustrates why they are the student’s best friend.
• The Conclusion : In the conclusion, the student can sum up why their friend holds the hallowed title of ‘best’. Or, at a higher level, the student can use the final paragraph of their essay to look forward to the future of their relationship with their best friend. 

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My Best Friend Essay Story

While we are teaching a short essay on my best friend’, it can also be approached from another angle, i.e., as a nonfiction story.

While the clearcut essay format may be eminently suitable for younger students, you may wish to revisit this genre with older students, this time emphasising storytelling.

In this creative nonfiction approach, students can merge the essay format with storytelling elements such as character, setting, central conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. 

Constructing their best friend composition in this manner allows students to work on structuring a nonfiction text. Simultaneously, it offers them a chance to develop their creative flair.

My Best Friend in 10 Lines

Another approach particularly well-suited to younger students is the my best friend essay 10 lines format.

This helps younger students get writing by giving them a clear target to aim for, which makes planning easy.

However, you can still introduce the three elements of the 5-paragraph essay here. As students list the points they want to make in their 10 lines, they can be encouraged to group these into introduction, body, and conclusion sections. 

For example, a plan might look like this:

A ‘My Best Friend in 10 Lines’ Plan

Introduction

Line 1: My friend’s name.

Line 2: What she looks like.

Line 3: Where she is from/her family.

Line 4: What friendship means to me.

Line 5: How we met.

Line 6: The kindest thing she has ever done.

Line 7: The funniest thing she has ever done.

Line 8: My absolute favorite thing about her.

Line 9: Restate why she is my best friend.

Line 10: How I see our future together.

To complete their 10-line ode to their friend, the student simply builds proper sentences around each of these (or similar) ideas.

More on Planning a My Best Friend Composition

As we can see in the sample plan above, the planning process is relatively straightforward when the 5-paragraph essay structure serves as a framework. However, we may want to take things up a notch for students of a higher ability.

A good, old-fashioned brainstorming session is an excellent starting point for the student. They can list their favorite memories and their friend’s best features.

While younger students may inevitably write something of a hagiography (a biography of a saint!), older students may want to present a more realistic portrait of their ever-present amigo.

Likewise, if the student is undertaking their composition in a narrative nonfiction form, they’ll need to map out the narrative arc of their story at the planning stage.

As with any story, the conflict will serve as the engine of the narrative. However, this conflict does not have to take the form of a problem between the writer and the best friend. After all, this text is more likely to be something of a love letter than a letter of complaint. Instead, the conflict is more likely to take the form of a problem or a challenge faced by the writer and their pal together.

Whether or not the student’s text will take a full-blown story form, true-to-life anecdotes will bring life to the student’s writing. The planning process is the perfect time to dump these onto paper, even if they don’t all make it into the final draft.

How to Start a MY Best Friend Essay

As with most text types, fiction or nonfiction, the writer will want to grab the reader’s attention from the outset. An effective way of doing this is by using a hook.

How to Hook The Reader

The student writer has many methods available to grasp the reader’s attention. While some of these will only be suitable for more advanced students, most can be adapted with a bit of effort for our younger writers.

• Start in the Middle of the Action

Technically known as, In Medias Res , this technique involves opening the story in the middle of a moment of dramatic tension with the exposition filled in later. This type of wizardry is probably best reserved for the more skilled student writer.

• Make a Bold Promise at the Outset

The promise of a big payoff can undoubtedly catch a reader’s eye and draw them in, but the student-writer must follow through later in the text. For less experienced students, you may want to offer a writing prompt to help out here. For example, 

My best friend Jack is truly one of a kind, but just how special he is wasn’t clear to me until the day a fire broke out in our school.

Students can quickly adapt such prompts by changing the event mentioned to their own circumstances.

• Create a Sense of Intimacy

Another way to grasp the reader’s interest is to create a sense of intimacy right from the start. This can be achieved by addressing the reader directly in a conversational tone. Students should use informal language and approach writing their text as if they were speaking to a close friend – this is perfect for this writing style.

• Open with an Anecdote

Another way to create interest (and a sense of intimacy) is to open up with an interesting anecdote about the friend. Students can select an interesting or humorous story to use as a carrot to entice the reader in. The student could substitute an exciting or amusing fact in shorter pieces for a full-blown anecdote.

• Begin with a Quotation

Quotes are a great way to garner attention. There are many online repositories of inspirational quotes on every topic under the sun where students can find a golden nugget of friendship-based wisdom to open their masterpieces. They must simply type in keywords such as ‘famous’, ‘quotes’, and ‘friendship’ to uncover a smorgasbord of well-articulated wisdom for students to choose from. However, students should ensure the sentiment expressed in their selected quote ties into the type of friendship described in their work.

Working the Body

As we stated earlier in this article, the 5-paragraph essay structure, or the narrative writing arc, lays out a suitable template for the student-writer to work their way through the body of their text. However, it’s worth pointing out five areas where a little attention can significantly impact.

• Get Specific

The devil’s in the details. The more specific the student is in their writing, the more effectively they will communicate with the reader.

Encourage students to be as precise as possible in their descriptions. A thesaurus is an excellent tool to help students find just the right word for the job.

• Vary Sentence Length

Often, emergent writers rely on the same couple of simple sentence structures in their writing. This soon makes the writing monotonous for the reader; if they continue to read, it is only with effort that they will finish the student’s work.

Variety is not only the spice of life but also the spice of good writing. Encourage students to vary their sentence structures and alternate between long and short sentences to diversify the rhythm of their writing and evoke interest on the reader’s part.

• Use Dialogue

Weaving dialogue into a my best friend essay text is a great way to bring colour and variety to a student’s writing. It also allows the student to practice punctuating dialogue – an essential skill!

Students will need to learn to listen carefully if they are to be able to write how people actually speak. Encouraging them to read their dialogue aloud is an effective way to check if it rings true.

• Incorporate Literary Devices

Though this is undoubtedly a nonfiction text, it has firm roots in creative writing too. Students should incorporate some of the literary techniques and devices that we’d more commonly associate with poetry and fiction writing to add colour, creativity, and imagination to their writing.

For example, for younger students, physical descriptions of their BFF provide the perfect opportunity to introduce similes and hyperbole. Don’t be afraid to get comical here; writing should be fun, after all. 

Does their friend have a big nose? How big? As big as an elephant’s trunk, perhaps?

Just make sure students avoid being too mean or poking fun at areas too sensitive for their friends.

It is easy to differentiate different abilities by challenging stronger students to use more complex literary devices in their work. Zoomorphism anyone?

• Evoke the Five Senses

Emergent writers often display a bias towards only using the sense of sight in their descriptions. To bring their writing up a notch, encourage your students to employ all five senses in their writing.

By evoking the sense of hearing, smell, taste, and touch in their work, students will help their writing to come alive in the reader’s imagination.

WRAPPING THINGS Up

In a regular 5-paragraph essay, the concluding paragraph is usually the time to summarize the main arguments and drive home the thesis statement one more time. Obviously, things are a little bit different in a “my best friend essay.”

Of course, students can take the opportunity to revisit and restate the main reasons why their best friend holds the best-friend-championship belt. Still, there is a more artistic way to use their composition’s final paragraph.

Ask students to think about their friendship and where they see it in five, ten, twenty, or even forty years.

Undoubtedly, for younger students, in particular, this may be a bit of a challenge, but it can be a fun thought experiment too. Students can pose themselves questions to help, such as:

• Will we be neighbours?
• Will we work together?
• Will our children go to school together? Etc.

Taking a tentative step into the possibilities of the future can make for an impactful ending.

MY BEST FRIEND ESSAY EXAMPLE

So that should get you well on your way to creating an excellent my best friend essay that will not only get you some great grades but also score you some brownie points.

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How to End a Friendship While Protecting Your Heart

A therapist's guide to saying goodbye with love, for your friend and yourself — plus, when it's time to ghost.

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The chaos of the pandemic made falling out of touch natural — even acceptable. That was kind of handy when it came to an acquaintance that, for whatever reason, you don't have room for in your life.

But breaking up with a once-close friend is not that easy. Cutting ties with a deeper connection is much harder, given that everyone is following everyone on social media — never mind that they may be able to see who you're reimbursing for beers on Venmo. If you work or share a living space with the person you'd like some distance from, that can be even harder.

And severing a friendship can be so much more painful than ending a romantic relationship. With a partner, you expect there to be intense feelings, but friends can pack in a surprising amount of emotional baggage you didn't even notice they were carrying around, explains Fran Walfish, Psy.D. , a California-based psychotherapist and author appearing on CBS's The Doctors and WEtv. It may feel easier to ghost them to avoid confrontation — and in some cases, that's what you'll need to do.

But way more often than not, ending a friendship requires an approach that stresses compassion for the friend you once held dear, compassion for your own feelings, and firm resolution to help you both move forward. "I do believe it helps tremendously to have an understanding of what went wrong. It's a learning opportunity to grow and use the information in a positive way for the next relationship, and enhance self-awareness," Walfish adds.

Should you end your friendship?

Sometimes, the reason you need to end the friendship is a no-brainer, says Brittany Johnson, LMHC , an Indiana-based trauma-focused therapist and author of Get Out of Your Own Way. Johnson reports being booked solid since the pandemic began helping clients work through revelations that left them feeling that they didn't know their friend at all, or that they didn't share the same values. Many breakups were brought on by being shocked to discover very different takes on current events, such as social unrest around racial injustice , police brutality, or politics around the 2020 election ; more was about the science behind the spread of COVID-19 and dealing with lockdown.

But other times, says Johnson, the problem with your friend is less black-and-white, and doing the legwork to be certain you want to end the friendship can save you a lot of grief . Even if you are pretty sure you don’t want this friend in your life, the best way to end a friendship is actually to try to preserve it at first .

That’s because communicating why you are angry or disappointed in a friend has several benefits: Expressing yourself can ensure your friend knows how you feel, Johnson says, so they can't claim to be surprised. It also allows you to feel at peace when with your decision if your concerns aren't resolved after you bring them up, and gives your friend a chance to apologize and perhaps be there for you in the way you need, says Johnson. There's nothing worse for your own emotional wellbeing than forcing a relationship to end and realizing later that you've made a mistake.

When it's time to end your friendship

Unfortunately, after an initial heart-to-heart, it quite often becomes clear that the friendship isn't working, and that it's in your best interest to end it entirely. What kinds of situations warrant this response? According to Good Housekeeping's panel of psychologists and therapists, these are red flags that you simply can't ignore:

• The friend is flouting clear boundaries, even after you've asked them to honor them, repeatedly showing up in places you don't wish to see them, or broaching a topic of conversation that's off-limits.
• They're lying to you or consistently breaking your trust, are no longer rooting for you, or have become your rival.
• They've steered onto a one-way street — it's all about them, and you are devoting way more time, effort and resources to the friendship than you're getting from it.
• They're consistently negative toward you and tarnish your mood, or you feel an obligation to be friends with no real connection in this case.
• Their values no longer align with yours, and you can't find a middle ground. "If you are having to hide things that are important to you, that's a sign [the relationship] may be toxic and not helpful anymore," says Jen Douglas, Ph.D. , a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University's School of Medicine and a practicing psychologist in the San Francisco Bay area. "Just as many of us will draw a line in the sand on where we will work due to a company's values, we deserve to have similar thoughts in regards to values held by friends who we associate with."
• They're gaslighting you, especially over issues of identity or sexual experience. If they're invalidating your feelings about being queer , for example, refusing to accept who you are while minimizing every experience you share, it's time to move on.
• It's an extreme situation involving abuse. In that case — which we'll get to later —you'll need more immediate distance.

Assuming it's any of the reasons above aside from an abusive situation, however, what should you do next?

Should I end it over text?

The short answer here is no , and there are some other don’ts: Don’t ask another friend to deliver the message that you won't be speaking to them again, nor should you rant about them on social media, or be destructive in some other way.

.css-ouovwr{margin:0rem;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;font-family:MajestiBanner,MajestiBanner-weightbold-roboto,MajestiBanner-weightbold-local,Georgia,Times,Serif;font-weight:bold;letter-spacing:0.03rem;}@media(max-width: 64rem){.css-ouovwr{font-size:2.5rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-ouovwr{font-size:2.8125rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-ouovwr{font-size:3.125rem;line-height:1;}}.css-ouovwr em,.css-ouovwr i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-ouovwr b,.css-ouovwr strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;} Writing a letter can help to assertively communicate why the friendship isn't working for you.

So what should you do? Start by gradually distancing yourself from the friend in question , experts say. This gives you time to make sure you're ready to discuss things without spilling out pent-up anger or frustration , says Johnson. Acting too fast is generally turns "the talk" into "the screaming match."

Next, decide if you want to have a face-to-face or spell it out in a letter , advises Jen Polite, PhDc, LMHC, MS , a New York-based psychotherapist. Part of this is getting real about your expectations, she says. "What's your objective? The objective is imperative because you want to ensure that you're not having a conversation in hopes that they'll give you something, like closure, explanations, or clarity," Polite says. "Though ideal, this type of outcome isn't within your control — your objective should be centered on what you alone can control, and you should only schedule a live conversation if sharing how you feel is the most important thing on your agenda."

And you’re not a wimp if you decide not to have "the talk," says Johnson. "If it's not your strong suit, it'll be counterintuitive to try to force yourself to have a face-to-face conversation," Johnson explains. In this case, you'll work to express your feelings in a note.

When a written breakup may be best:

A written goodbye can help you end things peacefully in many ways, chiefly among them that you'll avoid a confrontational scene.

• You can express yourself calmly and clearly , without getting flustered. "If you have felt invalidated by the person but know that you will regret not expressing yourself, [writing a letter] can help to assertively communicate why the friendship isn't working for you," explains Douglas.
• You can take your time. "When approaching emotionally difficult subjects, it is important to think through what you would like to get across ahead of time," says Douglas. You may want to write a draft in a journal first, suggests Tasha M. Brown, Ph.D . , a New York-based clinical psychologist specializing in youth therapy. "If you need to get your thoughts out and organized, you can journal first, or even dictate what you want to say to another friend," she says.
• It can feel safer . If a friend has been physically or verbally violent, you likely don't owe them a goodbye to begin with. But if you feel you must, a letter is the way to go.

When conversations may be better:

Some people find it easier to face a friend and declare their feelings, allowing someone a chance to respond and see genuine emotions. You'll want to select a neutral setting to have this conversation — somewhere that isn't on anyone's "turf" so to speak, and quasi-public if possible, to keep both you and the friend from making a scene.

• You'd like to gauge their reaction . A real-time conversation can give your friend a chance to respond, and can help you see if they understand the point you're trying to get across, which can make things feel more settled. Ultimately, talking in person can give you a chance to be gracious and remind them that you are also sorry this relationship didn't work out.
• If you think it will be helpful to your friend . Having a conversation in person may give your soon-to-be-former friend a chance to resolve their feelings. "You should aim to listen as much as you speak," Polite says. They can weigh in on how they feel about ending your friendship in a calm and constructive manner; if it becomes explosive or overly emotional, that's your cue to transition into next steps (or, just to leave).
• You can talk through boundaries. The goal of this conversation should include setting boundaries you're going to need them to uphold moving forward," Brown adds. Your friend might have boundaries of their own — ending a friendship respectfully means you will want to understand theirs as well.

Master tactics for breaking it off:

Regardless if you're doing it in person or via snail mail, employing these strategies when ending a friendship will result in the healthiest possible resolution for both parties.

• Make it about how you're feeling. Most people respond better to "I" language when you are affirming your emotions. Framing what your friend did or didn't do in terms of how it made you feel will also help you avoid incendiary language or accusations that'll prompt defensive digs , Polite says. "It's important to stick to giving feedback on behaviors — statements like 'It's really bothered me how you've put down my partner even after I've asked you to stop' — versus making general statements about their character, like 'You're a terrible person,'" Douglas explains.
• Share responsibility. "Saying something like ' We can't seem to find a middle ground' can be better received than 'You aren't doing what you should be,' because it doesn't indicate they're wrong alone," says Johnson. Yes, even if you feel in your heart that they alone are at fault — your goal here is to end things gracefully, and blaming them won't help with that.
• Keep the conversation neutral, and skip loaded language. Even if the person begins throwing blame or insults your way, continue to respond by focusing on your feelings, and don't engage in any low blows. "Stay away from the word 'toxic' in the entire conversation, because that word will set anyone off," Johnson stresses. "That's never productive for a good conversation."
• Try to stay out of the weeds. "To engage in a back and forth conversation over small details is counterproductive, as you've already made a decision," Brown says. Use phrases like: "This has been my experience"; "This is how I feel"; "This is what I'm thinking," Johnson adds. If the conversation is going in circles, it's time to end it — you don't want to allow yourself to become gaslit in the process.
• Lay your expectations out for moving forward . Be clear here — are you asking for time and space? Or do you wish to never hear from this person again? If you'll be seeing this person again in an office, a classroom, or another social setting, what kind of interactions are you hoping to have? Johnson says it's important to share what you hope for the future as plain as day to avoid confusion later on.
• Wish them well. Showing that you have goodwill toward them may or may not be well received in the moment, but if it's sincere, it's worth doing. Later, looking back, they may appreciate that you're rooting for their future happiness.

When it's okay to mute or block someone — or simply ghost:

Some conflicts should prompt you to immediately block a friend on social media and remove yourself from any interaction: those that make you feel unsafe or targeted. S afety is non-negotiable , says Douglas. There are things you cannot simply agree to disagree over. "Issues such as social injustice, racism, and police brutality intersect with many individuals' personal experience and deeply held values," she says, and can make you feel emotionally unsafe around someone. If you don't share any other social circles and have no need for closure, you can ghost this person and sever communication without explanation. You don't owe them anything.

You should learn to forgive and forget, but it's hard to do while scrolling through their timeline.

Another time ghosting or blocking may be appropriate: If they're actively gaslighting you, meaning they're erasing your human experience or opinions, says Douglas. The emotional labor of convincing someone to respect your feelings, or not be racist, homophobic, xenophobic or generally intolerant in any regard is not on you alone, and you can decide that it's too much for you. You don't need to bear the cross of mistreatment in a quest to correct a former friend's behavior, she adds. In other words, y ou can freely walk away from this person without closure or explaining why you're ending this friendship if it's too hard on you.

If the person is a threat to you or your health, it's crucial that you end your relationship immediately. If you know this person may have enough info to track you down, call 911 or local authorities and get help in handling the situation.

If you don't feel unsafe or gaslit, but just don't want to deal , muting a former friend is a good choice. This option (or the unfollow function on Facebook) wipes their content and activity off your feed — and they will be none the wiser. It's an easy digital fix that can save you a lot of internalized drama.

Once the deed is done:

Despite how sure you are you needed to quit your friend, you'll likely feel extremely sad. "You should expect upfront that there will be some grieving, especially if this person had any hand in major milestones in your life," Brown explains. You may even doubt your decision for a short while, which is only natural. "Having your pros and cons list [from before], being able to confidently say why you ended the friendship is crucial here. In moments of sadness, you're able to remember why you made the decision."

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Zee Krstic is a content strategy manager for Hearst Magazines, focusing on SEO optimization and other editorial strategies for four brands, including Country Living, House Beautiful, ELLE Decor and VERANDA. He previously served as Health Editor for Good Housekeeping between 2019 and 2023, covering health news, diet and fitness trends as well as executing wellness product reviews in conjunction with the Good Housekeeping Institute. Prior to joining Hearst, Zee fostered a strong background in women's lifestyle media with eight plus years of editorial experience, including as a site-wide editor at Martha Stewart Living after developing a nutrition background as an assistant editor at Cooking Light . Zee produces service-based health coverage, as well as design and travel content, for Hearst brands on a contributor basis; he has written about food and dining for Time, among other publications.

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How (and when) to end a friendship, according to experts

Friends are meant to stick by our side through thick and thin.

But as we grow and evolve as people, so do our friendships . While many of us hope that every friend we make is a "for lifer," not all friendships are meant to stand the test of time. Naturally, this means that the friends that you start out with at eight are not necessarily the same people that you are gonna be spending time with at 80 . 

It may sound easy to determine if your friend should be around for reason, a season or a lifetime, but it's really anything but. While there is endless advice on how to break it off with a romantic partner, the same rules don't always apply to friendships , especially when you throw mutual friends, complicated pasts and sensitive feelings into the mix.

For that reason, we went straight to the experts to better understand how — and when — to end a friendship while protecting your heart (and theirs).

So, whether you recently moved away from the other person or just feel a distance that therapy cannot mend , follow the tips below.

When it's time to end a friendship

In a perfect world, a friendship should be a reciprocal relationship. If the friendship feels uneven, consider where this feeling is coming from. To do this, licensed therapist Susan Zinn recommends evaluating your NDWVs: Needs, Desires, Wants and Values. 

“What are your NDWVs for the friendships that you have and how do these core characteristics compare to that of your friend’s,” Zinn told TODAY. “This will help you determine whether the relationship is working and understand where any inequalities may be coming from.”

It is especially important to keep this in mind if you have brought a problem to your friend's attention and they still refuse to change. More often than not, this is a sign that it's time to reevaluate the friendship.

Dating and relationship expert Angela N. Holton adds that you should note if the friendship is causing consistent stress or sadness.

"If the unchanged behavior is creating disharmony in your life ... it’s keeping you up at night or causing grief and you can’t get past it ... it’s time to reevaluate," Holton told TODAY. "If you have already done this before, it’s probably time to move on."

Signs that your friendship is unhealthy

It's often easier to judge from the outside looking in, so try to remove yourself from the situation before determining if your friendship exhibits toxic traits.

Zinn recommends asking the following questions:

• Does your friend show interest in your life?
• Is your friend manipulating or controlling?
• Is your friend reliable?
• Do you feel neglected or judged by your friend? 
• Is your friend emotionally draining?
• Does your friend they have a negative impact on your life? 

Expert tips on how to end a friendship

Now that we've got that out of the way, how do you actually sever the tie? While there isn't an exact formula for ending a friendship, there are three steps you should take when you're ready to do so.

• Journal. Take time to reflect on your relationship and why you allowed this person to stay in your life for so long. “I find journaling your feelings is important because you are really seeing what’s working or not working,” Zinn said. 
• Confront your friend. Be clear with them about how you've been feeling and why you think it's time for the relationship to end. “Confrontation does not mean anger or drama; confronting the situation is better than avoiding it," Holton said.
• Talk in “I” statements. Remember that you can only speak to how you have been feeling in the friendship. Zinn suggests using phrases like "what I need, what I want, what I value and what I desire.”

When it's OK to end a friendship over text

Let's get this out of the way: It's almost never acceptable to end a friendship over text. While, yes, texting a friend may be easier and less confrontational, experts agree there are more mature ways to end things.

“Adults must show up as adults in relationships and meet in person or via phone/FaceTime to have these tough conversations," Holton said, adding that this will ultimately "build stronger character and communication skills.”

Nevertheless, there are always exceptions. If you feel unsafe around the person, think seeing them in person may sway your decision or they make it difficult for you to stand up for yourself, then go ahead and send a text.

"If you’re afraid to disappoint someone and have a pattern of masking one’s own feelings in order to gain approval of someone else, send a text or email," Holton said.

But don't do it alone: "Have another friend, family or therapist coach you through the process so that you’re able to stick to your decision and create a real break in the relationship," she added.

What to do after ending a friendship

There are a lot of emotions that bubble up after the loss of a friendship — even if it was by choice. In the days following, show up for yourself by doing the following:

• Reflect. While you may have been the one to end the friendship, it is important to understand the role that you played in the relationship not working out. “Take ownership and accountability for the parts that [you] played instead of being defensive and blaming someone else,” Holton said. 
• Grieve. Give yourself time to deal with the difficult emotions that may arise in the process of losing a friendship you once cherished. “It’s a loss, it’s painful, it’s gonna take time,” Holton added.
• Move forward. Even though this friendship didn’t work out, there are still people out there that love and understand you. Use this time to examine your NWDVs, so you can put your best foot forward in future friendships. "[Tell yourself] that I am choosing people to be in my life and surrounding myself with people based on what I really need, want, desire and value," Zinn said.

A reminder to take care of yourself

• How to love yourself to the core, according to experts
• Self-love quotes to remind you of your worth
• How to be happy alone: 10 ways to become your own best friend

Fadzai Mushayamunda is a NBC Page and contributing writer for TODAY.com. Her interests lie in news, lifestyle and pop culture content. She holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Wofford College.

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Ending a Friendship: Tips for a Successful Split

Last Updated: May 17, 2024 Fact Checked

Making the Break

Dealing with the aftermath, deciding if should you end it, expert interview.

This article was co-authored by Kim Chronister, PsyD and by wikiHow staff writer, Dev Murphy, MA . Dr. Kim Chronister is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She specializes in helping people struggling with substance abuse, relationship problems, eating disorders, and personality disorders. Dr. Chronister has contributed to and appeared on Access Hollywood, Investigation Discovery, and NBC News. She is the author of “Peak Mindset” and “FitMentality.” She holds an MA in Clinical Psychology and a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) from Alliant International University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 838,116 times.

It’s an unfortunate part of life: friendships change, and sometimes they end. Losing a friend can be as hard as breaking up with a lover, but it's necessary when things just aren't working out. If your friendship is more toxic than beneficial, it might be time to end it. To help you navigate the painful waters of losing a friend, we’ve created a guide to friend breakups, below.

Things You Should Know

• End a friendship if you’ve grown distant, you can’t stop fighting, or if they’re a toxic friend.
• Cut off toxic friends cold turkey; if they’re not abusive or toxic, tell them directly you don’t want to be friends, or just let the relationship fade naturally.
• Expect to mourn the friendship, even if ending things was for the best. In time, you’ll likely meet new friends and feel happier and more at peace.

• If you're in danger, notify authorities (a boss, school officials, the police) immediately. This is no longer a friendship worth handling alone. [2] X Research source

• Keep your conversations in safe, shallow territory. Keep all of the emotional, personal baggage in your own bedroom and out of their house.
• Lose touch with them. Don't make as big an effort to call or text. Skip a phone call or two. Don't overdo it, but if you're not friends, you don't need to be in constant communication.
• Decline invitations to chill. As the distance between you grows, stop spending time with the ex-friend. They'll stop calling eventually, once they get the idea.

• Choose a quiet, but still public, spot to talk. This way you can hightail it out of there when the conversation is over, or if things get heated (which they hopefully will not). Coffee shops and public parks are good choices.
• Let them know your concerns politely, firmly, and quickly. Cut right to the chase: "I don't think we should hang out anymore." Keep the conversation focused on you: for example, instead of accusing the person of drinking too much, go with "I need time to focus more on my studies and less on partying."
• Give the other person a chance to talk. It's important to let your friend tell you what they think about the situation, but don’t let it change your decision.
• Establish clear boundaries for the end of the relationship. Let them know if they’re still welcome to talk to you or not.

• Let yourself cry if you need to. Journal about your feelings, or talk them through with a trusted friend. Addressing your emotions will help you to process them.
• If you're taking the loss of this friendship harder than you expected to, or if a month goes by and the feelings still feel very fresh, it may be worth speaking to a therapist. They can help you confront your emotions and find a way through to the other side of grief.
• Allow yourself to mourn, but try not to fixate on the past . Distract yourself with a new hobby or social events. In time, the grief at the loss of your friendship will fade.

• Some mutual friends may feel torn between loyalty to you and to your ex-friend, so try to keep them out of the rift as much as you can. They'll appreciate your maturity and grace.
• You may explain to your mutual pals why you chose not to stay friends, if you're comfortable with it, but avoid gossiping about your ex-friend or attempting to "turn" anyone against them, even if your ex-friend doesn't treat you with the same grace.

• Not sure how to make new friends? Try going to a trivia night at a local cafe or bar, take a cooking class or learn a new language, join a gym—making friends is hard for a lot of people as they get older, but there are endless opportunities to meet new pals. [5] X Research source

• Was your disagreement a one-time occurrence or has been ongoing? If your disagreement just won't die, maybe the friendship should.
• Does the issue itself matter more than the friendship? Voting for different people is one thing, but if someone deeply disagrees with your core values, it may be a deal-breaker.
• Is there a minor hurt or a slight that neither of you will apologize for? If so, you may be able to mend the rift by talking it out . But if your friend betrayed you in a way you’re having a tough time overcoming, the friendship may be at its end.

• If you're old friends, consider giving it another shot. Your friendship may just be going through a rough patch. But remember that just because you’ve been friends for a long time doesn’t mean you need to be friends forever.
• Does it feel like you’re the only one putting effort into the relationship? Having a strong friendship requires mutual cultivation and work. For it to be balanced, you both need to reach out and contribute to that friendship.
• Ask yourself if it’s possible that your friend feels hurt by a fight or argument you had. They might distance themself from you because of this.
• Reader Poll: We asked 736 wikiHow readers, and 59% of them agreed that the most likely reason your friend might distance themself after a fight is because they need time to cool off . [Take Poll] Give them some time to cool down, them contact them to mend your friendship.

• It can be hard to cut off a friend if you share mutual friends who don’t understand why you’re ending the friendship. Try not to let this be a deterrent: if your friend is toxic, cutting them off may hurt, but you’re likely to be happier and more at peace in the long run.

• Are you still willing to put in the energy to keep this relationship going? If the answer is no, then move on and make the break.
• If you already know that you'll be happy to get rid of the drama, boredom, or other negative feelings that you associate with this person, ending it is a good idea.

Expert Q&A

• Avoid the temptation to tell people all about your former friend's character flaws. If you do this, chances are you will receive the same treatment. Thanks Helpful 423 Not Helpful 43

Tips from our Readers

• When telling them directly you want to end it, stay calm and focused. Don't get derailed trying to explain every issue. A simple "I don't think we should be friends anymore" suffices.
• If you only want less contact, not a full breakup, communicate that clearly too. Scaling back is sometimes a good middle ground between completely cutting them off or staying unhappy.
• Expect some awkwardness with mutual friends, but avoid badmouthing your ex-friend to them. No need to make the situation more dramatic by trying to turn people against each other.
• Look for new social outlets and friends, but don't rush into anything. Take time to reflect on what you valued and didn't value in the last friendship before pursuing new ones.
• If it's a toxic relationship, end it immediately for your own wellbeing. You don't owe any explanation to someone abusive or manipulative. Just cut contact completely.
• It's normal to grieve the lost friendship, even if ending it was the right call. Let yourself feel sad or angry for a bit. In time, those feelings will fade.

You Might Also Like

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about friendship, check out our in-depth interview with Kim Chronister, PsyD .

• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201603/8-signs-toxic-friendship
• ↑ https://www.stalkingawareness.org/what-to-do-if-you-are-being-stalked/
• ↑ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/hendrie-weisinger/ending-friendships_b_914980.html
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/lifetime-connections/201601/5-reasons-its-so-hard-end-friendship
• ↑ https://www.scienceofpeople.com/meet-people/
• ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/fashion/its-not-me-its-you-how-to-end-a-friendship.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/lifetime-connections/202201/8-signs-toxic-friendship
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/widows-guide-healing/201809/10-questions-ask-yourself-you-end-friendship

About This Article

Losing a friend is hard, but if your relationship is harmful then it may be better to end it. To break off a friendship, you can let it fade naturally by keeping your conversations shallow and not going out of your way to call or text them. You can also avoid spending time together so they eventually get the idea and stop inviting you to things. If you don’t want to wait for the relationship to end, tell them directly that you aren’t interested in being friends anymore and why. It’s better to be firm, so you can say something like “I don’t think we should hang out anymore because we fight too much.” Even though it shouldn’t change your decision, make sure to give them a chance to say what they think to be polite. For more advice, including how to set boundaries after ending a friendship, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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A friendship essay is precisely what it sounds like: a paper that students write to describe their relationships with their mates.  It is among the many assignments that students are given in their college institutions.  Writing essays about friendship is a great way to analyze what the connection means to you and reflect on some of your encounters. It can also be used as a tool to improve your closeness and affection. This blog post offers tips you may consider while writing your paper and its outline. It features friendship essay examples that help generate ideas that form the primary focus of your paper.  If you are not ready to waste your time on essay writing, StudyCrumb is here to offer affordable prices and professional writers.

What Is a Friendship Essay?

The definition of friendship essay is quite clear and straightforward. A paper about friends can be described as a write-up on a relationship between two or more people. This interpretation makes it easier to obtain the meaning of friendship essay.  Writing such thematic essay will help you communicate your feelings as well as your thoughts. It allows you to recollect your memories about different encounters you have had in life. It will also help you evaluate qualities of your connection.  While writing, you may have a sequence of events starting from your meet-up, activities you have done together, and how you have sustained the connection. Preparing an essay about friendship can evoke memories from your past that may have been long forgotten.

Purpose of an Essay on Friendship

This kind of essay aims to help you explore its nature and form, its pros and cons, and its role in your life. The importance of friendship essay is that it acts as a reflective tool. It helps you realize the significance of creating and maintaining good relationships with friends. It also explains how these connections contribute to your overall wellness. In addition, an article about friendship may teach you to understand that true friendship is priceless and should stand the test of time.

Ideas to Write a Friendship Essay on

Writing essays about friendship is a more manageable task than drafting a paper about a topic that may require more detailed research. Any excellent essay about true friendship starts with an idea that you can examine.  Below are some unique ideas you can explore:

• What is friendship?
• What does friendship mean to me?
• The value of friendship you cherish in your life.
• Cross-cultural friendships.
• The role of friendship in mental health maintenance.

As you reflect on your relationship with your friend, see if you can write a paper incorporating these themes. Remember to choose an idea that interests you and is relevant to your personal experiences or research. Be sure to support your arguments with evidence and examples from real-life situations, literature, or academic research. Look through our definition essay topics or persuasive essay ideas to find a theme that suits your task best.

Friendship Essay Outline

An essay outline about friendship is a summary of what your write-up will contain but in a less detailed format. You use it to organize and structure your content logically and effectively. It presents the main topics and subtopics hierarchically, allowing writers to see the connection between different parts of the material. The importance of an outline lies in its ability to help writers plan, organize, as well as clarify their ideas. This makes the writing of an essay about friends more efficient, and the final product is more coherent and effective. Here is an example of an outline for a friendship essay.

• Briefly introduce the topic of friendship
• Provide a thesis statement that summarizes the main points of the essay
• Topic sentence
• Your main argument
• Real-life examples that support your key idea
• Supporting evidence
• 3rd Body Paragraph
• Examples or recommendations
• Summarize the main points
• Provide some food for thought

Note that this is a general outline. The exact structure and content of your essay will depend on the specific requirements of your assignment and your personal interests.

Structure of a Friendship Essay

The structure of an essay on friendship typically includes the following three parts.

• Introduction An introduction should grab the reader's attention and provide background information. It should also include a clear thesis statement that sets a path and direction of the friendship essays.
• Body The essay's body is where you will provide evidence and details to underpin your thesis statement. It should consist of several paragraphs supporting and developing a statement of purpose. Each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect of your friendliness, such as its importance, benefits, or challenges.
• Conclusion Briefly summarize the essay's main points and reinforce your principal argument. The conclusion should leave a lasting impression on readers and emphasize your topic's significance. Overall, the structure should be clear and well-organized, allowing the audience to follow your argument and understand the topic's significance.

Friendship Essay Introduction

A good introduction about friendship essay should grab the reader's attention and encourage them to continue reading. This can be achieved through a " hook ," a quote, an interesting fact, or a thought-provoking question. Background information can then be provided to give context to the discussed topic.  The introduction to an essay about friendship should also clearly state your main point or argument of the piece, known as thesis statement. This sets pace for the rest of the paper and gives readers a clear view of what to expect. A friendship essay introduction should be concise, engaging, and provide context for the audience to understand the content fully.

Read more: How to Start off an Essay

Friendship Essay Introduction Example

Here is an example of a friendship essay introduction that sets the stage for a reflective and thought-provoking exploration of the most precious gift in life.

Friendship is a special bond that unites two individuals with common interests, experiences, and emotions. It makes life easier and contributes to our happiness. It is a relationship that transcends race, religion, and socio-economic status and has power to sustain and uplift the spirit of humans. In this essay, I will explore its benefits and how it can contribute to a better world. Through personal anecdotes, I will illustrate the bond's depth and role in our day-to-day lives.

Friendship Essay Thesis Statement

The friendship thesis statement aims to provide a summary of the essay's main point. It can be one or two sentences which you develop as you research. The statement of purpose should focus on the central argument and be supported by evidence presented in the body. The thesis statement about friendship should guide the essay's structure. Its main objective is to provide your reader with a roadmap to follow. It should be specific, concise, and accurately reflect the content in your paper. Understanding what constitutes a strong thesis is crucial for writers as it is integral to every essay writing process.

Friendship Thesis Statement Example

The thesis statement must be clear to readers so that they may quickly recognize it and comprehend the paper's significance. It should act as a blueprint of what to expect. A friendship thesis statement sample could be:

In this essay, I will explore friendship's meaning, its importance, benefits, drawbacks, and how it can contribute to a better world. Through a series of personal anecdotes, I will illustrate the bond's depth and its key role in our lives.

Friendship Essay Body

The body part should include five or more paragraphs. Students will use body paragraphs to elaborate on the key factors that make their connection special.

• Definition and explanation. This friendship body paragraph should start with a definition and a brief explanation of its characteristics and qualities.
• Importance of friends. Discuss why it is vital in your life and how it contributes to personal growth and welfare.
• Types of friendships. A paragraph about friendship should discuss different types of friend's relationships that exist.
• Qualities of a good friend. Discuss standards a great confidant should possess.
• Challenges. Discuss the common problems that friends face.
• Ways to strengthen friendship. Provide tips on reinforcing and maintaining good relationships.
• Conclusion. Sum up the key points made in your essay and reiterate the importance of genuine bonds in life.

Friendship Body Paragraph Example

Below is a friendship body paragraph sample.

How to Spend Free Time with Friends • Outdoor Activities. Spending time in nature is a great way to bond with friends. You can meet, then go for a hike, take a walk, or go to a picnic in a park. This allows you to connect and enjoy the beautiful world around you. • Movie Night. Watching a movie is another fun activity you can do with friends. You can share popcorn, grab snacks, and enjoy a movie together. This is a great way to relax and unwind. • Board Games. Playing board games with friends is a fun and interactive way to spend free time. You can play classic games like Monopoly. This is a great way to challenge each other and have a good time.

Friendship Essay Conclusion

Any conclusion on a friendship essay should sum up the main ideas discussed in your essay and restate the thesis statement. It should leave a lasting impression and provide a closure to your topic. To start writing a conclusion about a friendship essay, commence by rephrasing the thesis statement in different words. Summarize the points discussed in your essay by connecting them back to your statement of purpose. End conclusion with a final thought or call to action that leaves a lasting impression on your reader.  It is vital to keep it concise yet impactful. Avoid introducing new information or arguments, as it can confuse readers. Instead, focus on tying up loose ends and emphasizing main ideas discussed in your essay.

Read more: How to Conclude an Essay

Friendship Essay Conclusion Sample

Here is an example of a friendship essay conclusion:

In conclusion, friendship is an essential aspect of our lives that brings joy, support, and companionship. It is a relationship built on mutual trust, understanding, and love. A true friend will always be there for you, no matter what. As humans, we need sincere friends to help us navigate life's ups and downs and provide emotional support. An understanding friend can withstand any obstacle and bring happiness to our lives. The connection is meant to last a lifetime, whether through shared experiences, interests, or simply a common bond. Ultimately, having a close group of loyal friends who truly care for us is one of the greatest gifts we can receive in life.

How to Write an Essay on Friendship?

To write an essay about friendship, start by brainstorming ideas about what friends mean to you and the benefits of such kinds of relationships. Knowing how to write a good essay about friendship involves selecting a great topic and arranging your content in a manner that has logical flow.

1. Come Up With a Topic About Friendship

To brainstorm essay topics on friendship, consider the following.

• Reflect on your own experiences. Think about your own bonds and encounters you have had with allies. Avoid bad occurrences. This can inspire topics to explore in your essay. To find a subject that interests you, you can also look through internet examples of friend essays.
• Ask questions related to friends, such as "What makes a meaningful connection?" or "How does the quality of your bond change over time?"
• Talk to others. Ask friends, family, or classmates about their experiences. They may have interesting insights that can inspire new topics for your essay.

Ensure that topic you select is appropriate for your report style. For example: 

The Day my Best Friend Changed My Life.

You can start this topic by how you met, narrate your story, and then pick out some attributes of a good friend and the advantages of the relationship. Remember to choose a topic on friendship essay that you feel passionate about and can explore in depth in your essay.

2. Do Research

To research and collect information for the friend essay, follow these steps.

• Start with a general search. Use search engines like Google to find articles, books, and other resources on affection.
• Identify keywords. Determine the most relevant keywords for your essay, such as "essay about a friend." Use them in your search to narrow down results to the most pertinent information.
• Evaluate sources. When you have a list of potential sources, evaluate each to determine their credibility and relevance. Look for sources that are written by experts in the field and that have been peer-reviewed or published in reputable journals.
• Take notes. As you read, take notes on the most important and relevant information.

3. Develop a Friendship Essay Outline

An outline is a useful tool for organizing ideas in an essay and it ensures that your essay has a structure. Before outlining you need to have a clear vision of what your essay will focus on. Then analyze every piece of information that you have and categorize it into headings. An outline of an essay about friendships will comprise a list which consists of each paragraph’s topic sentence . By going through the outline, you are able to examine what purpose each paragraph serves. If you need assistance on how to create an outline for a college essay about friendship use the outline example shown below.

4. Write an Essay on Friendship

Writing an essay about friendship is an exciting task. Below is a sample of how you can write your friendship essay. Friendship is the bond between two or more individuals based on mutual trust, support, and understanding. This connection can develop at any stage of life and even last a lifetime. It is a bond that fills our lives with comfort, laughter, and advice during a hard period. Many different factors can contribute to its formation and success. Having similar needs, mutual interests, and social activities can help sustain the relationship. Another crucial aspect is being ready to support each other through happy and difficult times unconditionally. Trust is also an essential component in the longevity of this connection. In conclusion, friendship is an invaluable treasure that brings joy, comfort, and support to our lives. It provides a safe place in a world that can be harsh and unforgiving. It reminds us that we should always stay true to each other.

5. Proofread Your Friendship Essay

When writing a friendship essay, consider the following for an effective introduction.

• Grab your reader's attention. A good introduction makes them want to continue reading your friendship essay.
• Provide context. Give an overview of the friendship essay and its purpose. This will make readers interested in your work.
• Establish your purpose. Clearly state the main idea or thesis.
• Preview the main points. Briefly summarize key points that will be covered.
• Be concise. An introduction should be short and on point, generally no more than one or two paragraphs.

Remember, your introduction will set tone for the rest of your piece and should encourage your readers to continue reading.

Read more: Essay About Happiness : Tips & Examples

Friendship Essay Examples

A sample essay about friendship can be critical to students, especially when they are researching and collecting information. Free friendship essays help you get ideas on how to write and structure your essay. Below are essay examples about friendship that you can go through to help with your writing and draw inspiration from. Friendship essay example 1

Friendship essay example 2

Essay about friendship sample 3

Example of essay on friendship 4

Friendship Essay Writing Tips

Here are some extra tips you need to know that will motivate you to write a friendship short essay.

• You could start with a quote, an anecdote, or a surprising fact.
• Use examples from your own life to illustrate your points in your school college essay about friendship, as this will make your essay more relatable and interesting to read.
• Friendship titles for essays should be clear and straightforward. They should also reflect your main points.
• Describe the aspect of the bond that, in your opinion, is most crucial. It is possible to personalize something that means an entirely different thing to various individuals.

Bottom Line on Friendship Essay Writing

Your central task is to understand what is a friendship essay even before you start writing. Friendship essays explore the nature of our relationships and their various aspects. They can take various forms, from short reflective essays to longer, more analytical pieces. These papers can discuss qualities that make a good friend, the benefits of your relationship, or challenges of maintaining close relationships. Examples of short essays about friendship could be a personal reflection, exploring the unique bond between the writer and their friend and what they hope to continue gaining from each other when they cross paths in future. If you struggle with other papers, feel free to check out our writing guides. From an essay about bullying to a world peace essay , we’ve got you covered.

FAQ About Friendship Essay

1. may i use friendship quotes for the essay.

Yes, it is always a winning step. You can write an essay on friendship with quotes either as the title of your essay or as an introductory phrase. You can also include it in the body of your work while narrating your story.

2. How to write a hook for an essay of friendship?

An essay should hook your reader's attention and make them want to read your story. When writing essays about friendship, you can describe a unique situation in which your friends helped you. You can also end your introduction with a catchy quote, such as Squad goals! Some other quotes that you can use include:

• A road to a friend's house is never long.
• Count your age with friends and years.
• True friend is seen through the heart, not through the eyes.

3. Explain the importance of friendship essay.

The importance of friendship essay is that it teaches students to express their thoughts and feelings about confidants and benefits they obtain from this connection. It also acts as a reflective tool. Friend essays also help students realize advantages of creating and maintaining good relationships with friends and how these linkages contribute to your overall wellness and welfare.

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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More From Forbes

3 ways to end a friendship, according to a psychologist.

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Sometimes life takes us in different directions.

You know that awesome coworker you enjoy grabbing drinks with on the weekends? According to sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst, you’ll be lucky if you still see them seven years from now .

Research shows us that the average friendship has a finite lifespan , meaning that the experience of a friendship ending is inevitable for most of us. Sometimes it will feel easy and natural, and sometimes it will be a fraught experience.

Here are three ways to end a friendship:

1. Let it fade out

One of the main reasons great friendships don’t last is that life inevitably changes. We move cities, get new jobs, get married, have kids. In my practice, I see many young adults struggle with adjusting to shifting relationships after college; without the proximity and social structure that college provides, it takes a lot more effort to invest in friendships that used to be logistically easy.

Human beings only have a finite amount of relational capacity that we allocate according to our priorities depending on the season of life we’re in. These shifts give us an opportunity to reevaluate which friendships take precedence. An easy example: when we have kids, our priorities naturally shift to taking care of small humans who need a lot of time and attention—time and attention that inevitably gets taken away from somewhere (or someone) else.

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As a result of our lack of capacity to nurture them, we can allow certain friendships, even great ones, to fade out mutually. And guess what? That’s okay. When people from our past come to mind, we can wish them well and take a moment of gratitude to appreciate their impact on our life during a particular season.

2. Ghost them

Sometimes we experience situations where cutting ties with someone as quickly and efficiently as possible is important. Did that person steal money from you? Cheat with your partner? Sabotage and profit from your business idea? Ruptures in friendships are normal (and even important ), but the pain of betrayal by someone we love is a devastating heartbreak. When there has been an unrepentant, gross breach of trust, cutting ties as quickly and efficiently as possible is protective. That might mean you immediately stop engaging with them in every capacity and ghost their ass.

3. Have a breakup conversation

Despite your best efforts at improving the connection, you’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to end a friendship where ghosting or fading out is not an option. Because of the nature and closeness of the relationship, it’s time to have the dreaded breakup conversation. Yes, this conversation might be awkward and painful, but having it is important, and here’s why:

• It communicates respect for the relationship. Having a conversation shows that you acknowledge and honor the time and investment you made in each other. It also gives the other person an opportunity to participate and express themselves as well, which shows that you respect their wants and needs in this difficult situation as well as your own.
• It brings clarity and understanding. Having a conversation lets you both know where you stand and gives you a grid for how to move forward in your interactions.
• It helps you hold your boundary. If someone refuses to respect your time and space, your conversation can be an anchor to point them to when you have to reestablish the ground rules.

The ending of friendships can be many things: awkward, painful, mindless, easy, sad. Despite the complexity of the experience, one thing is certain: the ending of friendships is normal. So let’s celebrate special connections that have stood the test of time as well as those in the past that have shaped us into the people we are today.

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What's the Best Way to End a Toxic Friendship?

Ending friendships is never easy, but doing these three things ease the pain..

Posted February 19, 2021 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

1. Make it about yourself and your needs, not their wrongs.

Too often, people will rush in and place blame on a friend who had wronged them when they are making the decision to terminate a friendship . Next, the person being blamed will immediately jump in to defend themselves from the verbal assault. Conflicts may erupt that can transition rapidly from serious discussions to flat-out fights when blaming begins.

Regardless of who might actually deserve the label of victim or perpetrator, avoid beginning any sentences with “fighting words” such as “You made me…” or “You should never have…” or “You are such a…” and so on. While letting someone know what you think may seem like the cleansing and cathartic choice, you are more likely to be setting yourself up for an unexpectedly ugly scene.

Owning your feelings and taking responsibility for how the relationship has unfolded or unraveled can be a much more freeing experience. By stating, “I really felt _________ when ____________ happened,” you are affirming your own personal reactions and needs.

By acknowledging your own feelings, you are recognizing what you do and do not want to experience within a friendship. By describing the action that created the negative feeling, you are acknowledging the behaviors that you will need to see as red flags in future relationships. Shaming and blaming may provide a very temporary feeling of victory, but being open and honest about what you will and will not tolerate in relationships will yield a much longer sense of satisfaction.

Unfortunately, no matter how well you work to keep the discussion on an even keel, your friend may choose to escalate the intensity and volume of the interaction. If you feel that things are getting out of hand and your efforts to keep the discussion productive have failed, you may need to diplomatically end the conversation and remove yourself from the scene.

Let the person know that you appreciate their feelings, but that it is not in anyone’s best interest to engage in an unproductive and hurtful exchange. The other person may not hear the message you are sending, but you will know that you have done the best that you can do given the current set of circumstances.

2. Acknowledge the benefits that the relationship has offered over time and express appreciation for the role this person has played in your life in the past.

After you have owned your feelings and acknowledged to your friend that you feel that the relationship is not working out for you, if there is something positive to share about the individual or the friendship, offer this information to them. Let them know that you had enjoyed having a gym buddy, or a lunch buddy, or a Saturday-night-no-date buddy, or neighborhood walking buddy, and so on. If you had shared taxi rides or carpooled together, mention these. If this person listened to you complain in the past or helped plan your wedding or held your hand as you dealt with the loss of someone you loved, let them know how much this meant. Most of us want to be let down easy and you can model this kindness and thoughtfulness for a soon-to-be-former friend and this person may actually learn something about the value of exhibiting the traits of a good friend.

By being willing to share what was positive in the relationship with your former friend, you are also sending a message to them about some behaviors that they might value in their other relationships. You are also affirming to yourself the behaviors that are of value to you, as well. Friendships are social exchange microsystems, so at some point, you received some form of benefit from your original investment in the relationship. If this person was just someone to speak to at work, then acknowledge that they had been able to help you feel more comfortable on the job. If they were willing to watch your pets one weekend or water your flowers or accompany you to a wine tasting or book club meeting, acknowledge this past kindness. While this may not be easy to do, it will leave you feeling so much better about how you chose to manage the break-up.

3. Shut down any “revenge fantasies ” before they take hold.

While some people enjoy getting caught up in the conflict at hand and wallow in their anger and negativity, this is not the best choice for their mental health or emotional well-being. If you have been the victim of intentional hurt, offense, or disrespect, it is normal to feel anger and, for some, to have the desire to see the perpetrator face consequences for their behavior. Obsessing about this desire, however, is extremely detrimental to your own well-being.

Researchers have revealed some interesting things about the anticipated joy that is expected to occur through inflicting punishment /revenge on others. It turns out that the pleasure in plotting revenge actually diminishes your psychological well-being and engaging in punishment is further detrimental to your state-of-mind. Imagining retribution against your former friend causes you to hold onto negative feelings and engage in rumination much longer than if you just let the transgression go and move on in your life.

While forgiveness may be suggested by some as the key to a peaceful heart, not everyone is capable of forgiving those who have hurt them. However, consciously reminding yourself to “let it go” when you find yourself replaying the conflict in your head and actually “letting it go” is an achievable goal. The saying that living well is the best revenge may actually be true. It is important to keep yourself from allowing your former friend to have further control of your thoughts and feelings once the “friendship expiry date,” as it can be described, has passed.

We are conducting a survey on the toll that the pandemic may have taken on social relationships. If you would like to share your experiences, please click on this link to complete the survey: Friendscapes and the Pandemic

Suzanne Degges-White, Ph.D. , is a licensed counselor and professor at Northern Illinois University.

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Please login first, 35 ways to end a friendly letter.

How to End a Friendly Letter

A friendly letter is a great way to keep in contact with people and stay on their radar while you build rapport and relationships. However, because there are so many different ways to show your appreciation and friendship while maintaining the right tone for your particular relationship, it can be difficult to know how to end your friendly letter. In this post, we'll highlight a variety of different ideas you can use when ending your friendly letter. 

Remember that a friendly letter is normally a fairly informal letter, but it doesn't have to be. In letter writing, you may find occasion to write a business letter or other professional letter. With business correspondence like cover letters or other written items, the letter closing you choose may differ from those found in this article. These are intended more for personal letters. However, if you have a close friend that's also a business associate, or if you're writing business letters to contact you know well, your concluding paragraph and your sign-off can be less formal.

 When the reason is clear when writing a friendly letter, it's best to send a handwritten note , especially if you're sending the letter via regular mail. Handwritten letters allow you to show that you care and they convey a level of personalization that a printed letter can not match.

3 TIPS FOR MAKING YOUR FRIENDLY LETTER EVEN FRIENDLIER

- Add a personal greeting to the beginning of the letter. 

 - Include what you want from this person in the letter.

- Keep it short and sweet and make sure to include a ending like one of the following phrases at the end. For a cover letter this is particularly true.

 - Bonus tip - make sure your friendly letter is handwritten (it's easier than you think).

SEE ALSO -  How to Write a Thank You Note - Best Tips and Examples

3 MISTAKES YOU SHOULD AVOID IF YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR FRIENDLY LETTER EVEN FRIENDLIER

- Don't write too long or the person will not be interested in reading more. 

 - Do not use formal or legal language, show that you are an individual not some kind of company by using informal language. 

 - Avoid using unnecessary punctuation like exclamation points

WHY A FRIENDLY SIGN-OFF IS IMPORTANT

A friendly sign-off is important when you end a letter because it shows that you care about the person, leaving the conversation on a positive note. It can be difficult to end a friendly letter without coming across as insincere or rude. If you show consideration for the other person's feelings, whether it's someone close to you or not, you are showing empathy and building rapport. 

Your tone should reflect how much you value the relationship with the person. For example if it is someone close to you, the tone should be sentimental and friendly. On the other hand, if it is a business relationship and you're just trying to maintain a good rapport with them, your tone could be more professional . 

 To achieve the right tone for your letter, consider how much you value or respect this person or how close you are to this person before.

SEE ALSO -  Best Ways to End a Greeting Card

35 WAYS TO END A FRIENDLY LETTER

#1 Best friends forever. 

 #2 You're the best. 

 #3 Thank you very much for your help and support, love you lots! 

 #4 Lots of love, (Your Name). 

 #5 I hope we can stay friends forever! 

 #6 Your friend, (Your Name). 

 #7 My best friend in the whole wide world, (Your Name). 

 #8 See you soon, love you lots 

 #9 Good luck with everything, you deserve the best! 

 #10 It was a pleasure to meet you, I hope we can keep in touch. 

 #11 Hope we stay friends forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever! 

 #12 Best wishes to you always, (Your Name). 

 #13 Good luck in everything you do, I'm always here for you. 

 #14 Lots of love and kisses, (Your Name). 

 #15 Warm regards! 

 #16 Best ever friend forever, (Your Name) miss you lots. 

 #17 All the best to my best buddy!

 #18 We may be apart, but our friendship will carry on. 

 #19 I'll always be here if you need me. 

 #20 You're my best friend and I don't ever want to lose you. 

 #21 Lots of love and hugs, (Your Name). 

 #22 Good luck at work! 

 #23 I hope we'll see each other soon! 

 #24 Lots of love from, (Your Name).

 #25 Bye-bye, buddy. I appreciate you a lot and will miss you a lot. 

 #26 Sincerely, 

 #27 Yours truly, 

 #28 Best wishes, 

 #29 Cheers. 

 #30 Regards, 

 #31 Warm wishes, 

 #32 With love and best wishes always. 

 #33 You are a good friend . 

 #34 Thanks again. 

 #35 Thank you so much for your continuing support and encouragement. You really mean a lot to me!

SEE ALSO -  Not Sure the Best Way to Sign That Handwritten Card? Here’s Advice for Every Occasion!

Always Think About How You Can Make Them Feel Good

When you are writing a friendly letter it's important to think about how you can make the person feel good. A lot of people like receiving gifts or cards because they will be reminded of something positive. For example, if the person is moving away you could send them postcards from different places so they don't forget about you. Handwritten friendly letters show how much effort and consideration you put into your relationship with the person and can make them feel valued and appreciated . A friendly sign-off is important because it lets the other person know that they're cared about and loved, as well as how much you value this relationship.

Make Sure Your Letter is Handwritten

Handwriting is important because it feels personal . People might forget about the letter if they only type it. Handwriting on the other hand makes it more personable and shows how much you care for this person. Handwritten also feels more sincere than typed letters. 

 Another reason handwritten letters are so important is because you can show the person you are communicating with how much they mean to you. You have to think about what it is that person likes or doesn't like. Handwritten letters allow you to personalize the letter and show the person how much you care. Handwriting shows how much time, effort, consideration, and love you are putting into this relationship. Handwritten is more informal than typed so it's important to think about how much formality this person likes before ending your friendly letter

SEE ALSO -  How to Make Your Greetings Culturally Appropriate

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 I hope my instructions on how to end a friendly letter have been helpful!

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Student Opinion

15 Prompts for Talking and Writing About Friendship

Questions to help students reflect on the meaning of friendship in their lives

By Natalie Proulx

Who are your closest friends? How much do you share with them? Do you actually like your friends? What have you learned from them?

Below, we’ve rounded up 15 questions we’ve asked students over the years all about friendship. You can use them as prompts for writing or discussion, inside the classroom or out. We hope they’ll inspire you to reflect on your friendships, consider how you can strengthen the ones you have, and motivate you to reach out and make new ones.

Each prompt includes an excerpt from a related New York Times article, essay or photo; a link to the related piece; and several questions to help you think deeply about it. Many of these questions are still open for comment from students 13 or older.

You can find even more ideas for teaching and learning about friendship in our related lesson plan: How Students Can Cultivate Meaningful Friendships Using The New York Times .

1. Who Are Your Friends?

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My Best Friend Essay in English (100, 200, 300, 500 Words)

A best friend is a special and unforgettable person in our lives and will stay longer than other common friends. We share most of the things, conversations, and important talks and support them anytime in our lives.

In this topic, we are discussing the best friend and the memories that we all spent with our friends and best friends. 

We have covered an essay pattern in various paragraphs of around 100 words, 200 words, 300 words, and 500 words, respectively, that helps many of the children or students of class 2 to 12th to understand the short and descriptive essay pattern of the best friend.

Table of Contents

My Best Friend Essay 100 Words

I always thank God that he sent Rahul into my life as my best friend, and I also wish that everyone has a friend like Rahul. Rahul and I met on the first day of school after the summer vacation when we were studying in the 5th standard.

I also remember an incident when our class teacher asked him about his previous school and the place from where he came. He is a good speaker, and he gave an interesting answer to everyone in his introduction in class. 

He is good at studies and also a good athlete. He loves running and singing too, and his handwriting is also very neat and clean. I feel happy to become his friend, and he also loves my company, and we spend most of our time together.

My Best Friend Essay 200 Words

I have had a lot of friends since childhood, but Raghav is one of the kindest and most trustworthy friends for me. I must say that Rohan has been my best friend since childhood. He is a very good person and a true friend because he has a good manner that he never lies to anyone, and hates people who lie to him. He is a kind boy and also a sincere student. We both live in the same building, and our apartments are also in front of each other. 

My parents also met my friend in the school at the parents-teachers meeting, and they also like Raghav and his sincerity. We both have been in the same class from the 3rd standard until now. We are in the 10th standard now, and we both help each other in the preparation for Board exams, which will be held in the month of March. 

He always invites me to his house to play video games with him. Every Sunday, we both enjoy playing video games with popcorn and juice together. Sometimes, our school teachers also wonder about our true friendship and the strong bond between us. He has a set of badminton rackets and a shuttle, and we also play together in the evening near our building. We both love each other’s company.

My Best Friend Essay 300 Words

Everyone has at least a single friend who is more than just a friend to them. Getting a friend is common, but getting a true friend is very rare and a bit special. It is like a big achievement for people to get a trustworthy and lifelong best friend. I also had a best friend in my life too since childhood. His name is Ganaraj, and his mother is Telugu. We are neighbors too and also classmates. We always sit together in school and also spend most of the time together. 

He is a very talented person and always supports me in my studies. We both like mathematics, and also we love to solve maths numerical problems. I like to play games, and we both always play games together and participate in the sports that are held in school. Our favorite sport is Cricket, and we both are good all-rounders on our school cricket team. Our class teacher always suggests and supports us to play cricket even better and also helps in education to achieve success in life.

He is very valuable to me, and I always value his friendship as I value my parents. He is like my family, as a brother from another mother. Whenever I need his help and support, my best friend is there for me to hold me. We both live in the precious moment and create memories that will stay with me forever. Our friendship is a kind of beautiful relationship, and I hope any kind will never break these mistakes. Every Sunday, we go together to a playground near our locality, and we spend most of our time there. My parents also like Ganaraj to be my friend. Everyone is happy with our friendship and has a strong bond that never goes down in any situation.

My Best Friend Essay 500 Words

My best friend’s name is Siddhart Jadhav. We have been friends since class 7th A in Alfred Nobel High School. We both studied in the same school in childhood but not in the same class as our sections are different. Later that time, all the students from all the sections are sorted according to the previous academics’ percentages and grades and separated into four different sections. Due to this separation, I met Siddhart in the 7th A, and we became friends at that time. Later, time goes by, and our friendship bond becomes stronger, and we become best friends with each other and spend most of our time together in school, tuition, and extra classes. We also sit on the same bench in the classroom. 

Our likes and dislikes are also common, and we also love to dance and sing. In every annual gathering and other function that is held in our school, we both participate and give our best performances. We never wanted to win the competitions, our intention was to enjoy the gathering. Some of our school teachers don’t like our togetherness and friendship, but some of them loved and always blessed our strong bonded friendship to stay longer and longer. Siddharth and I always talked in the running classroom, and most of the time, our teacher also punished both of us by standing outside the classroom. We always tried to irritate the lecturer in the chemistry lectures by asking tons of doubts and questions. We eat tiffin boxes sitting on the last benches.

Apart from this naughtiness, Siddharth is very punctual, and he is never late for coming to school and attending classes. He always completes his homework at a given time and being with him, I also start studying very well and completing my homework on time. He keeps his books and copies very clean. His writing is very nice and encourages me to write cleanly and clearly for better understanding. My parents also compliment my friend that being with him, I also become responsible and a good student.

Siddharth and I are both excellent football players and athletes. When we both start playing the football game, the opponent team never wins. Our sports teacher always motivates us and tells us that we will become good football players one day. My parents also know Siddharth very much, and they like his pleasant behavior. Feel free when Siddharth and I stay together, whether for playing games, video games, study, or for going out to have fun with other classmates. Siddharth is my best friend, my first friend. He is the one who offers me help in my studies when I need it, supports me and always shows love to me, defends me, and stands by my side in any situation no matter what. 

In academics, my best friend, Siddharth, is chosen to be awarded the best student of the year in the 10th class. He is one of the brilliant students of our school and also won many of the competitions that were held in school. He is like a well-wisher, and I always enjoyed his company. He, too, feels secure and relieved by spending time with me as well. He is like a problem-solving friend to me. I never wanted to lose him in my life.

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127 Friendship Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

When you have a good friendship topic, essay writing becomes as easy as it gets. We have some for you!

📝 Friendship Essay Structure

🏆 best friendship topic ideas & essay examples, 💡 good essay topics on friendship, 🎓 simple & easy friendship essay titles, 📌 most interesting friendship topics to write about, ❓ research questions about friendship.

Describing a friend, talking about your relationship and life experiences can be quite fun! So, take a look at our topics on friendship in the list below. Our experts have gathered numerous ideas that can be extremely helpful for you. And don’t forget to check our friendship essay examples via the links.

Writing a friendship essay is an excellent way to reflect on your relationships with other people, show your appreciation for your friends, and explore what friendship means to you. What you include in your paper is entirely up to you, but this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t structure it properly. Here is our advice on structuring an essay on friendship:

• Begin by selecting the right topic. It should be focused and creative so that you can earn a high mark. Think about what friendship means to you and write down your thoughts. Reflect on your relationship with your best friend and see if you can write an essay that incorporates these themes. If these steps didn’t help – don’t worry! Fortunately, there are many web resources that can help you choose. Browse samples of friendship essays online to see if there are any topics that interest you.
• Create a title that reflects your focus. Paper titles are important because they grasp the reader’s attention and make them want to read further. However, many people find it challenging to name their work, so you can search for friendship essay titles online if you need to.
• Once you get the first two steps right, you can start developing the structure of your essay. An outline is a great tool because it presents your ideas in a clear and concise manner and ensures that there are no gaps or irrelevant points. The most basic essay outline has three components: introduction, body, and conclusion. Type these out and move to the next step. Compose an introduction. Your introduction should include a hook, some background information, and a thesis. A friendship essay hook is the first sentence in the introduction, where you draw the reader’s attention. For instance, if you are creating an essay on value of friendship, include a brief description of a situation where your friends helped you or something else that comes to mind. A hook should make the reader want to read the rest of the essay. After the hook, include some background information on your chosen theme and write down a thesis. A thesis statement is the final sentence of the first paragraph that consists of your main argument.
• Write well-structured body paragraphs. Each body paragraph should start with one key point, which is then developed through examples, references to resources, or other content. Make sure that each of the key points relates to your thesis. It might be useful to write out all of your key points first before you write the main body of the paper. This will help you to see if any of them are irrelevant or need to be swapped to establish a logical sequence. If you are composing an essay on the importance of friendship, each point should show how a good friend can make life better and more enjoyable. End each paragraph with a concluding sentence that links it to the next part of the paper.
• Finally, compose a conclusion. A friendship essay conclusion should tie together all your points and show how they support your thesis. For this purpose, you should restate your thesis statement at the beginning of the final paragraph. This will offer your reader a nice, well-balanced closure, leaving a good impression of your work.

We hope that this post has assisted you in understanding the basic structure of a friendship paper. Don’t forget to browse our website for sample papers, essay titles, and other resources!

• Friendship and Friend’s Support It is the ability to find the right words for a friend, help in a difficult moment, and find a way out together.
• Friendship of Amir and Hassan in The Kite Runner The idea of friendship in The Kite Runner is considered to be one of the most important, particularly in terms of how friendship is appreciated by boys of different classes, how close the concepts of […]
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu Friendship Essay The role of friendship in the Epic of Gilgamesh is vital. This essay unfolds the theme of friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu that develops in the course of the story.
• The Confessions of St. Augustine on Friendship Augustine of Hippo believes that the only real source of friendship is God, and he adds that it is only through this God-man relationship that people can understand the ideal meaning of friendship.
• Classification of Friendship Best friends An acquaintance is someone whose name you know, who you see every now and then, who you probably have something in common with and who you feel comfortable around.
• Friendship as a Personal Relationship Friends should be people who are sources of happiness to one another and will not forsake each other even when everybody around is against them.
• Greek and Roman Perspectives on Male Friendship in Mythology The reason for such attitude can be found in the patriarchal culture and the dominant role of free adult males in the Greek and Roman social life. However, this was not the only, and probably […]
• The Theme of Friendship in the “Arranged” Film As can be seen, friendship becomes the source of improved emotional and mental well-being, encouraging Rochel and Nasira to remain loyal to their values and beliefs.
• Friendship as Moral Experience One of the things I have realized over the course of the last few years is that while it is possible to experience friendship and have a deep, spiritual connection with another person, it is […]
• Effect of Friendship on Students’ Emotional Health The study discovered a significant positive correlation between the quality of new friendships and adjustment to university; this association is more robust for students living in residence than those commuting to university. Friday and Adkins […]
• Childhood Friendship and Psychology Based on their research, they have founded a theory, according to which it is assumed that the children consider close relationship, appraisals, and sharing common interests as something very important to them and on the […]
• Defining of True Friendship This is the same devotion that my friends and I have toward each other. Another thing that best defines friends is the sacrifices that they are willing to make for each other.
• Friendship’s Philosophical Description In order for a friendship to exist, the two parties must demonstrate first and foremost a willingness to ensure that only the best occurs to their counterpart.
• The Importance of Friendship in “The Epic of Gilgamesh” At the beginning of the story, Gilgamesh, the king of the Sumerian city of Uruk, despite achievements in the development of the town, causes the dislike of his subjects.
• Gender Stereotyping and Friendship: Women Relationships The most interesting about this article is its ending which states that” the core of a friendship has to have more in-person interactions and experience”.
• True Friendship from Personal Perspective The perfect understanding of another person’s character and visions is one of the first characteristics of a true friendship. In such a way, true friendship is an inexhaustible source of positive emotions needed for everyone […]
• Analysis of Internet Friendship Issues Despite the correlation that develops on the internet, the question of whether social media can facilitate and guarantee the establishment of a real friend has remained a key area of discussion.
• Friendship from a Sociological Perspective For example Brazilians studying in Europe and United States were met with the stereotypes that Brazilians are warm people and are easy to establish friendships.
• “Is True Friendship Dying Away?” and “The Price We Pay” Then Purpose of the essay is to depict the way social media such as Facebook and Twitter have influenced the lifestyles of every person in the world.
• The Impact of Friendship in the Epic of Gilgamesh The elusive coalition between Enkidu and Gilgamesh, their fateful destinies and eventual epiphanies broaden the societal apprehension of the elements/value of friendship as expounded in the next discussion.
• Friendship in The Old Man and The Sea The book was the last published during the author’s lifetime, and some critics believe that it was his reflection on the topics of death and the meaning of life.
• Friendship’s meaning around the world Globally it’s very ludicrous today for people to claim that they are in a friendship yet they do not even know the true meaning of friendship.
• Friendship and Peer Networking in Middle Childhood Peer networking and friendship have a great impact on the development of a child and their overall well-being. Students in elementary need an opportunity to play and network with their peers.
• Friendship in “The Song of Roland” This phrase sums up Roland’s predicament in the book as it relates to his reluctance to sound the Oliphant horn. In the final horn-blowing episode, Roland is aggressively persuaded to blow the horn for Charlemagne’s […]
• Trust Aspect of Friendship: Qualitative Study Given the previous research on preserving close communication and terminating it, the authors seek to examine the basics of productive friendship and the circumstances that contribute to the end of the interaction.
• Educator-Student Relationships: Friendship or Authority? Ford and Sassi present the view that the combination of authority and the establishment of interpersonal relations should become the way to improve the performance of learners.
• Friendship in the Film “The Breakfast Club” The main themes which can be identified in the storyline are crisis as a cause and catalyst of friendship, friendship and belonging, and disclosure and intimacy in friendship.
• Friendship Police Department Organizational Change The one that is going to challenge the efforts, which will be aimed at rectifying the situation, is the lack of trust that the employees have for the new leader who they expect to become […]
• Friendship in the Analects and Zhuangzi Texts The author of “The Analects of Confucius” uses the word friend in the first section of the text to emphasize the importance of friendship.
• How to Develop a Friendship: Strategies to Meet New Friends Maintaining a connection with old friends and finding time to share life updates with them is a good strategy not to lose ties a person already has. A person should work hard to form healthy […]
• Is There Friendship Between Women? In conclusion, comparing my idea of women’s friendship discussed in my proposal to the theoretic materials of the course I came to a conclusion that strong friendship between women exists, and this is proved in […]
• Online Friendship Formationby in Mesch’s View The modern world tends to the situation when people develop the greatest empathy towards their online friends because it seems that the ratio and the deepness of these relationships can be controlled; written and posted […]
• Canadian-American Diefenbaker-Eisenhower Friendship In particular, the paper investigates the Mandatory Oil Import Program and the exemption of Canada from this initiative as well as the historical treaty that was officially appended by the two leaders in regard to […]
• Friendship in the ‘Because of Winn Dixie’ by Kate Dicamillo In the book “Because of Winn Dixie”, Kate DiCamillo focuses on a ten-year-old girl India Opal Buloni and her friend, a dog named Winn Dixie.
• Friendship Influencing Decisions When on Duty The main stakeholders are the local community, the judge, and the offenders. The right of the society is to receive objective and impartial treatment of its members.
• Friendship: To Stay or to Leave Each member of the group found out who really is a friend and who is not. This implies that the level of trust is high between Eddie and Vic.
• Friendship: Sociological Term Review But one is not aware of that type of friendship; it is necessary to study it. Friendship is a matter of consciousness; love is absolutely unconscious.
• The Significance of Friendship in Yeonam The paper examines the depth and extent to which Yeonam was ready to go and if he was bound by the norms of the human friendship and association of his era.
• Cicero and Plutarch’s Views on Friendship He believed that befriending a man for sensual pleasures is the ideal of brute beasts; that is weak and uncertain with caprice as its foundation than wisdom. It is this that makes such carelessness in […]
• Friendship: The Meaning and Relevance Although the basic definition of a friendship falls under the category of somebody whom we feel a level of affection and trust for or perhaps a favored companion, the truth of the matter is that […]
• Gender and Cultural Studies: Intimacy, Love and Friendship Regardless of the driving force, intimacy and sexual connections are common in many happy relationships. Of significance is monogamy whose definition among the heterosexuals and lesbians remains a challenge.
• “Feminism and Modern Friendship” by Marilyn Friedman Individualism denies that the identity and nature of human beings as individuals is a product of the roles of communities as well as social relationships.
• Social Media Communication and Friendship According to Maria Konnikova, social media have altered the authenticity of relationships: the world where virtual interactions are predominant is likely to change the next generation in terms of the ability to develop full social […]
• Fate of Friendship and Contemporary Ethics Is friendship possible in the modern world dominated by pragmatism and will it exist in the future? For instance, Cicero takes the point of view of the social entity, in other words, he defines friendship […]
• Feminism and Modern Friendship While criticizing these individuals, Marilyn asserts that the omission of sex and gender implies that these individuals wanted to affirm that social attachment such as societies, families, and nationalities contribute to identity rather than sex […]
• Creating a Friendship Culture This family will ensure every church member and youth is part of the youth ministry. I will always help every newcomer in the ministry.
• Friendship is in Everyone’s Life Though, different books were written in different times, the descriptions of a friendship have the same essence and estimate that one cannot be completely satisfied with his/her life if one does not have a friend.
• Intimacy, Love and Friendship and how they translate to employability The use of love and its conventions in the NAB campaigns is an illustration of how love as a concept can be used to translate to employability.
• Intimacy, Love and Friendship In the past, women in Australia led a life characterized by a lot of hardships because of the harsh traditions that they were supposed to follow.
• Contemporary Understanding of Intimacy and Friendship The Social Network film discusses how Facebook was developed and the challenges of developing the giant social site. Many people are of the view that Facebook has the effect of enslaving them by making their […]
• Interpretation of Friendship among Confucian and Neo-Confucian writers In his article “The Fifth Relationship; Dangerous Friendships in the Confucian Context”, Norman Kutcher explores the friendship as outlined under the Confucian system. The above writers have different interpretations of friendship of the under the […]
• Why International Students Find It Hard to Make Friends On the other hand, in societies that promote a high power distance, less powerful individuals accept their position in the chain of command and acknowledge the strengths of their superiors in the hierarchy.
• Woman Intimacy and Friendship with the Appearance of Social Media The anonymity provided by the social media makes this medium very appealing to both women and men as they are able to “reconstruct” themselves to a level they deem “cool” enough to garner more desired […]
• Faux Friendship and Social Networking The modern-day relationships have dissolved the meaning of the word friendship; as aromatic lovers refer to each other as friends, parents want their children to think of them as friends, teachers, clergymen and bosses have […]
• Friendship Type – Companionship Relationship A friendship is ideally not an obsession since the latter involves a craving for another person that might even lead to violence just to be in site of the other party.
• Aristotle’s Ideas on Civic Relationships: Happiness, the Virtues, Deliberation, Justice, and Friendship On building trust at work, employers are required to give minimum supervision to the employees in an effort to make the latter feel a sense of belonging and responsibility.
• Gender Role Development and Friendship As far as the conflict goes, the boy’s main problem is that he is unwilling to change his behavior towards a socially accepted one under the pretext that girls are more beautiful and, therefore, it […]
• Article Study on the Friendship Concept In the critical review article, the views of Norman Kutcher on the formation of friendships are discussed in detail. In this article, the views of other scholars are discussed in order to strengthen the works […]
• Henry Thoreau: The Concept of the Friendship Not every person is able to understand the essence of nature, its uniqueness, and importance. To my mind, his close connection to nature and a kind of isolation from people helped him to understand deeper […]
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• The Truth and Friendship in the Movie Camelot
• A Discussion About the Value of Friendship as Portrayed in Damon and Pythias
• What Is the Meaning of True Friendship
• A Literary Analysis of Friendship in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
• Factors Contributing to the Ups and Downs of Friendship in Knowles’ A Separate Peace
• Friendship and Love in the Little Prince
• Confidantes, Marriage, and Friendship in Pride and Prejudice
• What Makes A Successful Friendship
• Understanding Friendship Through The Staircase Model
• An Analysis of Friendship and Rejection in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
• A Discussion on the Different Types of Friendship
• An Analysis of Friendship in Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• A Literary Analysis of Friendship in a Separate Peace by John Knowles
• An Analysis of the Concept of Friendship in A Separate Piece by John Knowles
• A Separate Peace and Of Mice and Men – Real Friendship
• The Theme of True Friendship in the Book of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
• The Value of Friendship in Great Expectations
• What Makes A Good Friendship
• The Theme of Friendship in Separate Ways by Higuchi Ichiyo and Uncanny Stories by SongLing
• Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism
• The Waltz Of Sociability : Intimacy, Dislocation And Friendship
• The True Meaning of the Word Friendship
• A Description of Impartiality, Beneficence and Friendship According to Lawrence Blum
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• Friendship and Courage in The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• An Analysis of Friendship and Loyalty in the Film The Deer Hunter
• Turning Away from True Friendship
• Different Types of Friendship and The Need for Friends
• An Analysis of the Dangers of Friendship
• The Victorian Female Friendship and Homosexual References in Emily Dickinson’s Work
• What Is Friendship And How Is God Man ‘s Best Friend?
• The Venerable Kassapa Thera: A Living Symbol of Dedication, Courage, Altruism and Intimate Friendship
• “The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds” by Michael Lewis
• Building from Happiness to Friendship
• What Do You Think Steinbeck Says About the Theme of Friendship in of Mice and Men
• Distributive Justice and the Problem of Friendship
• How Does Shakespeare Demonstrate That Love and Friendship Can Overcome Greed in the Merchant of Venice?
• Does Borrowing Money From Friends Harm Friendship?
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• Is There Any Objection to the Teacher Establishing a Friendship Relationship With the Students?
• How Do Children Cope With Friendship and Death After Reading Charlottes Web?
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• How Does the Theme of Loneliness Affect the Friendship and Relationships in “Of Mice and Men”?
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• What Does True Friendship Require?
• How Do Friendship Network Characteristics Influence Subjective Well-Being?
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• Why Is Friendship Important?
• How Has Friendship Changed Because of the Spread of Social Networking?
• Why Does Friendship End?
• How Do Society and Culture Affect Friendship?
• Can Everything Be Bought for Money?
• How Do Gamers Take the Gaming Experience, Elements Such as Friendships Outside the Game Context?
• Do Friends Generally Have Similar Educational Interests?
• What Individual and Country-Level Factors Might Interact With Friendship Importance to Predict Health and Well-Being?
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My Best Friend Essay in English | 100, 150, 200, 300, 500 Words

My Best Friend Essay in English: Best friend is one of the most beautiful gifts in life. In this article, you are going to learn how to write an essay on my best friend in English. We’ve provided 5 essays here (100, 150, 200, 300, and 500 words). All the essays will be helpful for students of classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. So, let’s begin.

Table of Contents

My Best Friend Essay: 100 Words

I have many friends in school. But Akash is my best friend. We read in the same class and same section. He is polite and well-mannered. He is an ideal student. He is very smart and intelligent. He always obeys his parents and teachers. He wants to become an engineer. His favourite game is cricket. He is the captain of our school team.

Akash helps me to become a better person. We share our feelings, emotions, and happiness with each other. We study and play together. I want him to be successful in life. We hope our friendship will last forever.

Essay on My Best Friend: 150 Words

The world looks dark without a true Friend. I am fortunate that I have a best friend. Her name is Riya. We are friends since childhood. Riya is my class fellow. She is a soft-spoken girl. She is tall and good-looking. She is sincere and attentive in her studies. She belongs to a middle-class family.

Riya is a disciplined and obedient girl. Her hobbies are drawing, singing, and dancing. Everyone admires her because of her good behavior. Her aim in life is to be a doctor. Riya and I study and play together. We share our secrets, happiness, and sadness with each other. Whenever I face any problem, she helps me to get rid of the problem by providing the best solutions. I feel really lucky to have her as my best friend. May God give everyone a friend like Riya.

Also Read: Paragraph on My Best Friend

Essay About Best Friend: 200 Words

Man is a gregarious animal. He can not live alone. He wants to talk, love, and meet his fellow man, so he wants to have a friend. A friend is a person whom one loves, likes, talks and often meets, This brings happiness to a man’s life. A friendless man is never happy. He leads a sad life.

It is difficult to get a good friend. It is truly said that “Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.” My friend Rajesh is a faithful friend. Rajesh is my classmate and a close friend of mine. He belongs to a rich family. His father is a popular doctor. Mahesh is a simple and handsome boy. He is always smiling.

Rajesh has many qualities. He is a laborious boy. He is always serious for study. He is attentive in class and a topper in class examinations. He is practical and wears clean and neat dress. He is kind and helpful to other students. He is good at Mathematics. So, whenever I find difficulties in my Mathematics homework he helps me out. He is never proud. He takes keen interest in school activities, games, and sports. He takes an active part in debates.

Rajesh is a friend who guides me on the right path in life. I want him to be with me in every aspect of my life.

Essay on Best Friend: 300 Words

A true friend is a precious thing. Without a friend, life is dull and boring. I am really lucky to have a true friend. There are 5-6 friends of mine. But Rahul is my real friend. He is a genuine friend. Rahul is my best friend. We are made for each other.

I am proud of Rahul, and so is Rahul of me. We cannot live even for a single day without seeing each other. He has been my class fellow since my early childhood. Our friendship is natural and so everlasting. He comes from a respectable family. His mother is a religious lady and a housewife. Rahul is the only child of his parents. They love Rahul more than their own life. My parents also love him as dearly as they love me.

Rahul’s father is the Principal of a degree college. He is very learned and knowledgeable. And so, Rahul has inherited good intelligence and wisdom. He is brilliant in his studies. Science subjects are his favourite.

He helps me in these subjects. I am very good in English, and help him in this subject. There is a healthy competition between us. But are never envious of each other’s achievements.

Rahul wants to become a big and successful engineer. I want to be a lecturer. Rahul is a very good story-teller and singer. But he likes my jokes and anecdotes the best. We have a common hobby of collecting stamps. We both have a very good collection of stamps. We exchange stamps and information on the subject.

Rahul’s nature is sweet. He is very lovable. He often visits our house and in return, I also pay him visits. I am really lucky to have him as my friend. We together share our joys and sorrows. I have learnt much from him.

Also Read: My Best Friend 10 Lines in English

My Best Friend Essay: 500 Words

Introduction.

‘A man is known by the company he keeps’, Says a proverb. Hence one needs to be very careful in selecting friends. As Shakespeare has pointed out in his play ‘As You Like It’, ‘Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly’. Fair-weather friends are plenty; true and reliable friends are few and far between.

My Best Friend

I have many friends in my school , but most of them are only so-called friends. They are not dependable. Out of them, only Arvind is my true and sincere friend. He is my best friend. I am, indeed, proud of his friendship.

Arvind is the only son of a district court judge. Even then he is very humble and modest. His financial position is sound and enviable. Yet prosperity has not turned him proud and rude. He is not puffed with pride.

His Qualities

Arvind has all the fine qualities of head and heart. He is tall, healthy, and handsome. He is affectionate, kind, sociable, and extremely helpful. He is a good sportsman on the playground and an inviable scholar in the classroom.  All praise, honour, and admiration sit lightly on him. He is not swollen-headed. He is all the more modest and polite because of them.

He is a hard-working boy. He is kind and compassionate. His heart melts at the sight of poverty, sickness and human suffering of any kind. In order to serve the suffering humanity selflessly, he has decided to become a doctor and set up his medical practice in some rural Adivasi area. He often says that the selfless service of the poor is the true service of God.

Our Friendship

I am so proud that I have such an ideal friend like Arvind. Because of his company and rare friendship, my outlook, attitude, and behaviour have been positively influenced. His friendship has given a new, healthy dimension to my life and I, now, look forward to a happy and bright future.

Arvind is indeed, the architect of my life and the moulder of my destiny in the right direction. He is my friend, guide, and philosopher. I envy myself for having such an ideal friend.

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Essay on My Best Friend for Students and Children

500+ words essay on my best friend.

Friendship is one of the greatest blessings that not everyone is lucky enough to have. We meet a lot of people in the journey of life but there are only a few who leave a mark on us. My best friend is one such person who has been able to make a positive impact on my life. We have been a part of each other’s lives for the longest time and our friendship is still developing. She has been with me through all the thicks and thins. Most importantly, I feel extremely fortunate to have someone as a best friend in my life. In this essay on my best friend, I will tell you about how we became friends and about her best qualities.

Our Friendship

Our friendship started when my best friend came in as a new admission to our class. Both of us were hesitant to talk to each other at first, but gradually we developed a bond. I remember the first time my best friend tried to talk to me; I rolled my eyes because I thought there was no use and we wouldn’t hit it off. However, to my surprise, we became best friends by the end of the session year.

We learned so many things about each other and found out that our taste in music and fashion was so similar. Since then, there was no stopping us. We spent all our time together and our friendship became the talk of the class. We used to help each other out in studies and visited each other’s homes as well. We made sure to have lunch together on Sundays. We also used to watch movies and cartoons together.

On our summer break, we even went to summer camp together and made a lot of memories. Once during the summer holidays, she also accompanied me to my maternal grandparents’ home. We had a fabulous time there. Moreover, we even invented our own handshake which only both of us knew. Through this bond, I learned that family doesn’t end with blood because my best friend was no less than my family. Friendship is one relationship that you choose, unlike all other relationships.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Qualities of My Best Friend

I feel one of the main reasons why I formed such a bond with my best friend was because of the qualities she possesses. Her courage always inspired me to raise my voice against injustice as she always stood up to her bullies. She is also one of the smartest minds in class who doesn’t only excel academically but also in life. I have never seen a dancer as good as my best friend, the accolades she has won are proof of her talent.

Above all, I feel the quality that appeals to me the most is her compassion . Whether it’s towards humans or animals, she always keeps the same approach. For instance, there was an injured stray dog that was wailing in pain, my best friend did not only get him treated but she also adopted him.

Similarly, she saw a poor old woman on the streets one day and she only had money for her lunch. My best friend did not hesitate once before giving all of it to the poor lady. That incident made me respect her even more and inspired me to help the underprivileged more often.

Get English Important Questions here

In short, the bond I share with my best friend is one of my most prized possessions. Both of us inspire each other to become better humans. We push each other to do our best and we are always there in need. A best friend is indeed a precious gem and I am fortunate to have found that gem of my life.

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FAQs on Essay on My Best Friend

Q.1 Why is it important to have a best friend?

A.1 It is important for everyone to have a best friend as they are our well-wishers with whom one can share everything. In other words, it gets tough to share things with your parents or siblings, but with a best friend, we never hesitate. Additionally, they always support us and boost our confidence.

Q.2 What are the essential qualities of a best friend?

A.2 A best friend should be understanding. One must be able to share anything with them without the fear of being judged. They should be supportive and encouraging of one another. Subsequently, one must always look out for their best friends in times of need.

Q.3. Should you consider all your friends on various Social media as true friends?

A.3  You may have a number of friends on Social media, but they cannot be considered as true friends. Most of them are mere acquaintances. People with whom you talk only occasionally because they are in the same school, college, colony or workplace, but there is no bond of a true friend are acquaintances. A true friend is a person to whom you would go during your hard time seeking help. However, some acquaintances may become friends as time passes by. Thus, we can say that all friends on Social media are not your true friends.

Q.4. Can you have a negative influence on your life due to friends?

A.4  Friends greatly influence one’s life. It is always said that your company defines your character. Friends with good qualities have a positive influence on your life. They motivate you and guide you. Similarly, friends who have bad qualities can negatively influence your life.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Friendship — A Letter To My Best Friend

A Letter to My Best Friend

• Categories: Friendship Relationship

About this sample

Words: 1405 |

Published: Feb 19, 2022

Words: 1405 | Page: 1 | 8 min read

Works Cited

• Bolton, S. (2018). Friends forever? The nature and consequences of friendship stability over the lifespan. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(3), e12371.
• Fehr, B. (2004). Friendship processes (pp. 303-310). Springer, Boston, MA.
• Hall, J. A. (2012). How many hours does it take to make a friend? Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30(6), 669-674.
• Hill, S. E., & Dunbar, R. I. (2003). Social network size in humans. Human Nature, 14(1), 53-72.
• Ladd, G. W., & Troop-Gordon, W. (2003). The role of chronic peer difficulties in the development of children’s psychological adjustment problems. Child Development, 74(5), 1344-1367.
• Lawler, K. A., & Younger, J. W. (2015). The role of close relationships in health and education during adolescence and young adulthood. Child Development Perspectives, 9(4), 205-210.
• Majid, R. A., Othman, M., & Bakar, N. A. (2019). The influence of communication on the quality of friendship. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences , 9(4), 834-849.
• Nelson, K. M., & Padilla-Walker, L. M. (2013). Friendships in adolescence. In S. J. Schwartz, K. Luyckx, & V. L. Vignoles (Eds.), Handbook of Identity Theory and Research (pp. 549-563). Springer, New York, NY.
• Pellegrini, A. D., & Long, J. D. (2002). A longitudinal study of bullying, dominance, and victimization during the transition from primary school through secondary school. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20(2), 259-280.
• Shulman, S., & Kipnis, D. (2001). Adolescent romantic relationships: A look from the future. Journal of Adolescent Health, 25(3), 179-191.

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How to End a College Essay: Six Strategies

Gina twardosz.

• Last Updated on August 22, 2024

Table of Contents

Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of your Common App personal statement…or you’re thinking about the end of your personal statement, and that’s still a cause for celebration. 

Consider your favorite show, film, or book—how did you feel when it ended? Perhaps you were sad because you had spent so much time with the characters that they felt like close friends, or maybe you were angry at a disappointing conclusion that left more questions than answers. 

Whether we like it or not, a conclusion, good or bad, can change how we feel about a piece of media. It’s just as important as your introduction, and maybe even more important since it’s the last thing your reader will read. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to end a college essay to make a lasting impression.

Why Is the Ending Important?

When friends ask me for book or movie recommendations, I always start with the ending. “You have to watch it, the ending was so heartwarming!” I say, or, more often than not, “Don’t watch it—the ending didn’t make any sense.” 

Endings have huge cultural staying power and can even change the audience’s perception of the entire work. You don’t want to unravel your tightly wound story with a loose ending! 

And they lived happily ever after. 

This ending may be unforgettable but for the wrong reasons. Your life is not a fairy tale, so your essay can’t have such a boring, basic conclusion. The ending to your college essay should be rich with nuance and insight. 

To make a lasting impression on the reader, your conclusion should push boundaries, following the reader long after they finish reading your college essay. The end of your college essay should satisfy the reader, tying up loose ends, but a good conclusion is also active, not passive. A good ending to your college essay asks and answers the question, “What’s the point?” Why did the reader just read a 650-word story about you?

Your conclusion is, in many ways, a gift to the reader. It’s the dessert after a long meal—it completes their reading experience and makes everything that came before it worth it. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Before we explore the different ways to end a college essay, let’s discuss what not to do. 

The biggest mistake students make when crafting an end to their college essay is not taking the conclusion seriously. 

In essays you’ve written for class, you may have been encouraged to restate your thesis in the conclusion. While that’s a good strategy for an informative essay, a college personal essay is very different. Your college essay may not even have a clear thesis statement, and that’s okay. 

You should not summarize your essay in your conclusion either. A pointed summary of all the main points of your college essay may seem memorable, but it lacks creativity and can seem as though you’re talking down to the reader. A good ending introduces a new part of the essay, so it should stand out while remaining cohesive. 

How to End a College Essay

If you want your essay to capture attention and resonate with the reader, follow these six strategies for ending a college essay. 

Reflect 

While you should be reflecting throughout your essay, a great way to tie together any themes or lessons learned is by reflecting on your values or beliefs at the end of the essay. Have they changed since the beginning of the story by growing stronger, maybe even weaker as you’ve gained more knowledge? 

It’s important to note that reflection is not summary—you’re introducing a new way of looking at your story in the conclusion. In a way, reflection is the analysis of your story.

Reflection is a great way to show maturity and growth. While you’ll likely grow and mature even more throughout college, reflecting on your experiences shows a thoughtfulness conducive to a college education. 

If you’ve ever seen a stand-up comedian perform, then you know that sometimes they reference earlier jokes later in the set. A “callback” can seem like an inside joke between the comedian and audience, creating familiarity between performer and spectator. 

Let’s look at the essay introduction imagined in the article, “ How to Write a Good Essay Hook. ”

“Yuck!” I yelled as the pigeon pooped on my head. 

It’s safe to assume this essay will be, in part, about overcoming challenges or adversity. So, how should it end? To match the humor of the introduction, a callback can be utilized to end this college essay. 

The best advice I ever received was to stay positive. Keep looking up, because if anything, you’ll see the pigeon before it poops! 

While this essay is very humorous, your essay doesn’t have to be funny to use a callback.

Rescue Your Cliffhanger

It may be self explanatory, but if you started your essay with a cliffhanger, you’ll have to return to it at the end, saving whatever you left dangling in a move that will leave the reader both relieved, satisfied, and maybe even a little surprised. 

Ending your essay in a scene is also an active way to leave a memorable impression on the reader.

You’ve experienced a lot so far, but there is still so much for you to discover. Readers of your essay know that your big journey is just beginning, so don’t be afraid to end your essay looking toward the future. Especially if your essay is about overcoming a challenge, you’ll want to end on a positive note as you look out toward your potential. 

Just as you’re reflecting inward, look outward at the world around you. What’s next for you? Show the reader that your story is only ending on paper. 

When writing the perfect college essay, the stakes can feel overwhelming. Applying to colleges is a serious undertaking, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t allow yourself to feel excited! You’re going to college, and you’re going to do big things when you’re there, and beyond.

While you’ll likely have a chance to write about your career aspirations in one of the many short answer supplemental essays colleges require, your college essay can be a great way for you to write about your hopes and dreams. Especially if you’re writing about your identity, background, or talents, ending on your dreams can leave the reader with a memorable and heartwarming message.  

Surprise Twist! 

M. Night Shyamalan: You either love his twist endings…or you loathe them. I won’t tell you how to watch movies, but when it comes to writing, I can assure you that a surprise twist can make your college essay impossible to forget. 

It should be said that this can be one of the hardest endings to get right, and it definitely depends upon the way you’ve structured your essay. But if your essay is pretty conventional, a surprise twist can take your college essay to the next level. 

Think of your twist ending as more of a pivot into a new direction. It’s important not to stray too far from the topic of the essay—you don’t want a disjointed essay—but surprise twists can be a great way to ensure your essay doesn’t fall victim to trope. 

For example, maybe your essay is about becoming a more adventurous cook, but in the end, you end up burning Thanksgiving dinner! Things didn’t go as expected, but through this journey, you learned what truly matters is family…and takeout food. 

Life is full of twists and turns, and if you can work one into your essay, you may just take the right path toward your dream school. 

While the end of a college essay is only one part of it, it has the ability to the define the essay, so it’s important to take it seriously and write a creative ending that satisfies the reader while leaving a lasting impression. It’s not enough to simply start the race, you have to finish strong to secure your victory. One of these six strategies can help you end your college essay, ensuring that your college essay is unforgettable.

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Importance of Friendship Essay Example, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on May 10, 2018 May 10, 2018

Ready for importance of friendship essay? Take a look at this informational resource featuring an outline, APA style format, and a list of references. Use ideas from this essay sample to form the focus of your writing assignment. To achieve high grades order admission essays from experienced tutors who will help you with your essay.

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Importance of Friendship Essay Outline

Introduction.

Thesis: Friendship brings people together in a bond that helps them realize and experience a meaningful life.

Paragraph 1:

A good friend is always available irrespective of the circumstances.

• A true friend cares for their friends, accepts them unconditionally, tolerates their shortcomings, and encourages them even in the face of hopelessness.
• A loyal friend makes one to be who they are without fearing victimization or judgment.
• A good friend can know one more than one knows themselves.
• A friend can tell one without fear what one does not want to tell oneself.

Paragraph 2:

Friendship is like a partnership since it brings two people together on equal terms that are binding to both of them.

• Friends give their all and love each other unconditionally and do even more so as to sustain it.
• The ugly, the bad, and the good should be endured in friendship.
• A good friend brings out the best in someone.
• A person in friendship expects their initiatives to be attended to even when they are down with illness.

Paragraph 3:

Friendship can be compared to family and can even do more than a family could do for a person.

• Sometimes, the friends one has are the family they wish they had or the family they find easier to deal with as compared to their blood family.
• One’s blood family may ignore, ridicule, judge, or even misunderstand them.
• One may get from their friends that which they do not get from their family.
• A true family is not linked by the bond of blood but the bond of joy and respect in each other’s life.

Paragraph 4:

“A friend in need is a friend in deed” is an old cliché that speaks about true friendship.

• It essentially means that a true friend will always help in times of need.
• I fully understood the meaning of this saying when a classmate friend of mine once handed in my takeaway assignment in my absence.

Friendship brings people together to form a greater and stronger whole than its individual parts. Friends act and react in ways that show that they love and care for each other.

Importance of Friendship Essay Example

Almost every human being has friends or at least a friend with whom they spend time together. Friendship is about knowing someone better than others do and counting on them whenever the need arises. A friend is like a gift that one gives oneself. It is doubtless that out of friendship, one lives the fullness of life. Some of the qualities that are expected from friendship include trust, honesty, and authenticity. These are qualities that are majorly concerned with remaining true to a friend and providing them a shoulder to lean on all the time. Friendship brings people together in a bond that helps them realize and experience a meaningful life. Gudwriter offers two paragraph essay examples from any topic.

A good friend is always available irrespective of the circumstances. A true friend cares for their friends, accepts them unconditionally, tolerates their shortcomings, and encourages them even in the face of hopelessness. Even at that moment when everyone decides to walk away from a person for whatever reason(s), their true friend would walk in and be with them and support them. With a loyal friend, one can be who they are without fearing victimization or judgment because they know the friend fully understands them. A good friend can as a matter of fact know one more than one knows themselves. In addition, a friend can tell one without fear what one does not want to tell oneself. If one is on a wrong path, the friend would tell them as soon as they notice it.

Additionally, friendship is like a partnership since it brings two people together on equal terms that are binding to both of them. They give their all and love each other unconditionally and do even more so as to sustain it. In a friendship, there should be expected to be the ugly, the bad, and the good, all of which should be endured. A good friend brings out the best in someone by encouraging them and prevailing upon them to make the best out of their abilities and strengths. Just like in a business partnership, a person in friendship would expect their initiatives to be attended to even when they are down with illness. This is why it could be true to say that life is partly what one makes it and partly what the friends they choose make it.

Friendship can also be compared to family and can even do more than a family could do for a person. Sometimes, the friends one has are the family they wish they had or the family they find easier to deal with as compared to their blood family. One’s blood family may ignore, ridicule, judge, or even misunderstand them. In such a case, they would get from their friends that which they do not get from their family. However, in the best case scenario, friendship can also develop between or among family members. Normally, a true family is not linked by the bond of blood but the bond of joy and respect in each other’s life. One should consider a good friend of theirs as their greatest relation because just one loyal friend is more than a thousand relatives.

“ A friend in need is a friend in deed ” is an old cliché that speaks about true friendship. It essentially means that a true friend will always help in times of need. I never really gave much weight to this saying until I once had to rely on a friend and classmate for an important favor. I had missed school due to an unavoidable circumstance on a day everyone in the class was to hand in their final takeaway assignment in print format. I tried calling people I had thought were my friends among my classmates but none was willing to help. When I was just about to give up, Jasmine, a classmate who was not so close a friend, called and asked me to email her my assignment. I later learnt she downloaded the assignment, printed it, and handed it in together with hers. From then, I am careful about people I treat as friends.

Friendship brings people together to form a greater and stronger whole than its individual parts. Friends act and react in ways that show that they not only love each other but care for them too. It is akin to striking a partnership in which one partner is always there for the other partner in his or her absence. Friends broaden each other’s horizon by opening new doors for each other. They seek to soar beyond limits as a single determined force. Indeed, friendship guarantees one a meaningful and fulfilling life.

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Here's what to say when a friend is rude to you—and how to know when it's time to just end the relationship

By aditi shrikant,cnbc • published august 28, 2024 • updated on august 28, 2024 at 4:15 pm.

When a friend throws an unexpected jab your way, it stings more than an unpleasant comment from a stranger.

It's also harder to know how to proceed because, unlike with a stranger, you will have to see them again.

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Sara Jane Ho, who is the host of the Netflix show "Mind Your Manners" and author of a book by the same name, has a pretty clear idea on how to deal with a rude comment without putting another person down.

Here's how to respond to a sassy remark and shut down negativity in social settings.

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'Are you OK?'

"If it were a friend who said something mean to you, I usually look up and say, 'Are you OK?'," Ho told CNBC Make It .

Those three words can politely signal that what your friend said was out-of-line.

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Just as important as content is tone, Ho emphasizes. When you say, "Are you okay?" don't be short or sharp. Use a  friendly affect .

"I'm not being offensive back," she says. "I'm coming from a place of care and that is usually to put the other person in check." 

The right way to shut down a negative friend

Sometimes when a friend is in a bad head space, these comments can become pervasive.

If put-downs like this increase in frequency, it's OK to push back, Thema Bryant, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University and former president of the president of the American Psychological Association  told CNBC Make It .

Just don't do it in a "hostile or argumentative way," she says.

"When they say something that is putting you down or putting the whole group down, in one sentence refute it," she says. "Counter it so it doesn't sit there as truth." 

How to end the friendship

If the friendship has become untenable either due to your friend's negative disposition or more benign reasons like the two of you growing apart, it's OK to end the relationship.

There are ways to sever ties without being cruel, Bryant says. Here are three steps to rejecting someone with kindness.

• Do it sooner rather than later. "As soon as you know you don't want to be connected with them anymore, the sooner you can communicate that the better," Bryant says. If you're people-pleasing or conflict averse this might be uncomfortable, but ultimately it's the more respectful thing to do. "When you're avoiding someone you might hurt them worse," Bryant says.
• Don't list all their flaws. Share your reason for ending the friendship, in a measured way, to give them some clarity, but you don't need to "go into your list of complaints about the person if you're not trying to fix a relationship," Bryant says. 
• Stick to your decision. Don't continue the friendship out of convenience. This could look like avoiding them when you have plans but calling them when you're bored, Bryant says. 

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As a Teenager in Europe, I Went to Nudist Beaches All the Time. 30 Years Later, Would the Experience Be the Same?

In July 2017, I wrote an article about toplessness for Vogue Italia. The director, actor, and political activist Lina Esco had emerged from the world of show business to question public nudity laws in the United States with 2014’s Free the Nipple . Her film took on a life of its own and, thanks to the endorsement from the likes of Miley Cyrus, Cara Delevingne, and Willow Smith, eventually developed into a whole political movement, particularly on social media where the hashtag #FreeTheNipple spread at lightning speed. The same year as that piece, actor Alyssa Milano tweeted “me too” and encouraged others who had been sexually assaulted to do the same, building on the movement activist Tarana Burke had created more than a decade earlier. The rest is history.

In that Vogue article, I chatted with designer Alessandro Michele about a shared memory of our favorite topless beaches of our youth. Anywhere in Italy where water appeared—be it the hard-partying Riviera Romagnola, the traditionally chic Amalfi coast and Sorrento peninsula, the vertiginous cliffs and inlets of Italy’s continuation of the French Côte d’Azur or the towering volcanic rocks of Sicily’s mythological Riviera dei Ciclopi—one was bound to find bodies of all shapes and forms, naturally topless.

In the ’90s, growing up in Italy, naked breasts were everywhere and nobody thought anything about it. “When we look at our childhood photos we recognize those imperfect breasts and those bodies, each with their own story. I think of the ‘un-beauty’ of that time and feel it is actually the ultimate beauty,” Michele told me.

Indeed, I felt the same way. My relationship with toplessness was part of a very democratic cultural status quo. If every woman on the beaches of the Mediterranean—from the sexy girls tanning on the shoreline to the grandmothers eating spaghetti al pomodoro out of Tupperware containers under sun umbrellas—bore equally naked body parts, then somehow we were all on the same team. No hierarchies were established. In general, there was very little naked breast censorship. Free nipples appeared on magazine covers at newsstands, whether tabloids or art and fashion magazines. Breasts were so naturally part of the national conversation and aesthetic that Ilona Staller (also known as Cicciolina) and Moana Pozzi, two porn stars, cofounded a political party called the Love Party. I have a clear memory of my neighbor hanging their party’s banner out his window, featuring a topless Cicciolina winking.

A lot has changed since those days, but also since that initial 2017 piece. There’s been a feminist revolution, a transformation of women’s fashion and gender politics, the absurd overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction in New York, the intensely disturbing overturning of Roe v Wade and the current political battle over reproductive rights radiating from America and far beyond. One way or another, the female body is very much the site of political battles as much as it is of style and fashion tastes. And maybe for this reason naked breasts seem to populate runways and street style a lot more than they do beaches—it’s likely that being naked at a dinner party leaves more of a permanent mark than being naked on a glamorous shore. Naked “dressing” seems to be much more popular than naked “being.” It’s no coincidence that this year Saint Laurent, Chloé, Ferragamo, Tom Ford, Gucci, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, and Valentino all paid homage to sheer dressing in their collections, with lacy dresses, see-through tops, sheer silk hosiery fabric, and close-fitting silk dresses. The majority of Anthony Vaccarello’s fall 2024 collection was mostly transparent. And even off the runway, guests at the Saint Laurent show matched the mood. Olivia Wilde appeared in a stunning see-through dark bodysuit, Georgia May Jagger wore a sheer black halter top, Ebony Riley wore a breathtaking V-neck, and Elsa Hosk went for translucent polka dots.

In some strange way, it feels as if the trends of the ’90s have swapped seats with those of today. When, in 1993, a 19-year-old Kate Moss wore her (now iconic) transparent, bronze-hued Liza Bruce lamé slip dress to Elite Model Agency’s Look of the Year Awards in London, I remember seeing her picture everywhere and feeling in awe of her daring and grace. I loved her simple sexy style, with her otherworldly smile, the hair tied back in a bun. That very slip has remained in the collective unconscious for decades, populating thousands of internet pages, but in remembering that night Moss admitted that the nude look was totally unintentional: “I had no idea why everyone was so excited—in the darkness of Corinne [Day’s] Soho flat, the dress was not see-through!” That’s to say that nude dressing was usually mostly casual and not intellectualized in the context of a larger movement.

But today nudity feels loaded in different ways. In April, actor and author Julia Fox appeared in Los Angeles in a flesh-colored bra that featured hairy hyper-realist prints of breasts and nipples, and matching panties with a print of a sewn-up vagina and the words “closed” on it, as a form of feminist performance art. Breasts , an exhibition curated by Carolina Pasti, recently opened as part of the 60th Venice Biennale at Palazzo Franchetti and showcases works that span from painting and sculpture to photography and film, reflecting on themes of motherhood, empowerment, sexuality, body image, and illness. The show features work by Cindy Sherman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Louise Bourgeois, and an incredible painting by Bernardino Del Signoraccio of Madonna dell’Umiltà, circa 1460-1540. “It was fundamental for me to include a Madonna Lactans from a historical perspective. In this intimate representation, the Virgin reveals one breast while nurturing the child, the organic gesture emphasizing the profound bond between mother and child,” Pasti said when we spoke.

Through her portrayal of breasts, she delves into the delicate balance of strength and vulnerability within the female form. I spoke to Pasti about my recent musings on naked breasts, which she shared in a deep way. I asked her whether she too noticed a disparity between nudity on beaches as opposed to the one on streets and runways, and she agreed. Her main concern today is around censorship. To Pasti, social media is still far too rigid around breast exposure and she plans to discuss this issue through a podcast that she will be launching in September, together with other topics such as motherhood, breastfeeding, sexuality, and breast cancer awareness.

With summer at the door, it was my turn to see just how much of the new reread on transparency would apply to beach life. In the last few years, I noticed those beaches Michele and I reminisced about have grown more conservative and, despite being the daughter of unrepentant nudists and having a long track record of militant topless bathing, I myself have felt a bit more shy lately. Perhaps a woman in her 40s with two children is simply less prone to taking her top off, but my memories of youth are populated by visions of bare-chested mothers surveilling the coasts and shouting after their kids in the water. So when did we stop? And why? When did Michele’s era of “un-beauty” end?

In order to get back in touch with my own naked breasts I decided to revisit the nudist beaches of my youth to see what had changed. On a warm day in May, I researched some local topless beaches around Rome and asked a friend to come with me. Two moms, plus our four children, two girls and two boys of the same ages. “Let’s make an experiment of this and see what happens,” I proposed.

The kids all yawned, but my friend was up for it. These days to go topless, especially on urban beaches, you must visit properties that have an unspoken nudist tradition. One of these in Rome is the natural reserve beach at Capocotta, south of Ostia, but I felt a bit unsure revisiting those sands. In my memory, the Roman nudist beaches often equated to encounters with promiscuous strangers behind the dunes. I didn’t want to expose the kids, so, being that I am now a wise adult, I went ahead and picked a compromise. I found a nude-friendly beach on the banks of the Farfa River, in the rolling Sabina hills.

We piled into my friend’s car and drove out. The kids were all whining about the experiment. “We don’t want to see naked mums!” they complained. “Can’t you just lie and say you went to a nudist beach?”

We parked the car and walked across the medieval fairy-tale woods until we reached the path that ran along the river. All around us were huge trees and gigantic leaves. It had rained a lot recently and the vegetation had grown incredibly. We walked past the remains of a Roman road. The colors all around were bright green, the sky almost fluorescent blue. The kids got sidetracked by the presence of frogs. According to the indications, the beach was about a mile up the river. Halfway down the path, we bumped into a couple of young guys in fanny packs. I scanned them for signs of quintessential nudist attitude, but realized I actually had no idea what that was. I asked if we were headed in the right direction to go to “the beach”. They nodded and gave us a sly smile, which I immediately interpreted as a judgment about us as mothers, and more generally about our age, but I was ready to vindicate bare breasts against ageism.

We reached a small pebbled beach, secluded and bordered by a huge trunk that separated it from the path. A group of girls was there, sharing headphones and listening to music. To my dismay they were all wearing the tops and bottoms of their bikinis. One of them was in a full-piece bathing suit and shorts. “See, they are all wearing bathing suits. Please don’t be the weird mums who don’t.”

At this point, it was a matter of principle. My friend and I decided to take our bathing suits off completely, if only for a moment, and jumped into the river. The boys stayed on the beach with full clothes and shoes on, horrified. The girls went in behind us with their bathing suits. “Are you happy now? my son asked. “Did you prove your point?”

I didn’t really know what my point actually was. I think a part of me wanted to feel entitled to those long-gone decades of naturalism. Whether this was an instinct, or as Pasti said, “an act that was simply tied to the individual freedom of each woman”, it was hard to tell. At this point in history, the two things didn’t seem to cancel each other out—in fact, the opposite. Taking off a bathing suit, at least for my generation who never had to fight for it, had unexpectedly turned into a radical move and maybe I wanted to be part of the new discourse. Also, the chances of me going out in a fully sheer top were slim these days, but on the beach it was different. I would always fight for an authentic topless experience.

After our picnic on the river, we left determined to make our way—and without children—to the beaches of Capocotta. In truth, no part of me actually felt very subversive doing something I had been doing my whole life, but it still felt good. Once a free breast, always a free breast.

This article was originally published on British Vogue .

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Members of the Kennedy family denounce RFK Jr.'s decision to endorse Trump

WASHINGTON — Multiple members of the Kennedy family denounced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to endorse former President Donald Trump, calling the move a "betrayal."

"We want an America filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision of a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedom, economic promise and national pride," said a statement signed by five of the former independent presidential candidate's siblings.

"We believe in Harris and Walz," the statement continued. "Our brother Bobby's decision to endorse Trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story."

The statement includes signatures from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Courtney Kennedy, Kerry Kennedy, Chris Kennedy and Rory Kennedy.

Joe Kennedy III, a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, reacted to the statement, sharing it on X and writing that it was "well said."

Separately, the former candidate's cousin Jack Schlossberg said that he has "never been less surprised in my life."

"Been saying it for over a year — RFKjr is for sale, works for Trump. Bedfellows and loving it," he posted to X. "Kamala Harris is for the people — the easiest decision of all time just got easier."

Schlossberg is the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy.

Many members of the Kennedy family have been publicly critical of the independent's presidential bid, instead vocalizing their support for first President Joe Biden and now Harris.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Friday that he would withdraw from the presidential race and back Trump. However, he said that he would only remove his name from the ballot in "about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler." He encouraged voters in states where he remains on the ballot to still support him.

"These are the principled causes that persuaded me to leave the Democratic Party and run as an independent, and now to throw my support to President Trump," he said during his Friday remarks. "The causes were: Free speech, the war in Ukraine, and the war on our children."

Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a statement that the Harris campaign is for "any American out there who is tired of Donald Trump and looking for a new way forward."

"Even if we do not agree on every issue, Kamala Harris knows there is more that unites us than divides us: respect for our rights, public safety, protecting our freedoms, and opportunity for all," she said in a bid to attract Kennedy supporters.

Megan Lebowitz is a politics reporter for NBC News.

Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-warnings-from-democrats-about-project-2025-and-donald-trump

Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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Oasis tickets: Maximise your chances and avoid these mistakes - as confirmation emails for pre-sale ballot are delayed

Noel and Liam Gallagher have put a 15-year feud behind them to get the band back together. "Come see. It will not be televised," they warned in their announcement. So how can you get tickets?

Wednesday 28 August 2024 21:03, UK

Oasis are finally reuniting 15 years after they split, having announced a huge UK tour.

The iconic Manchester band's official social media accounts shared the dates of its 14 UK and Ireland shows, which will take place over July and August next year.

Speculation about a reunion grew in the weeks leading up to the announcement after years of Noel and Liam Gallagher's public feuding had made fans question whether it would ever happen.

"Come see. It will not be televised," they warned in their statement .

But when exactly are the dates for the brothers' on-stage reunion and how can you get tickets? Here's everything you need to know.

Oasis reunion: Follow live updates

When and where are the concerts?

More on Oasis

Oasis shut down Glastonbury rumours with strong statement after reunion announcement

Oasis reunion: Maldron Hotels accused of cancelling booking on concert night before 're-listing room for higher price'

Oasis drummer: Who played with the band first? And why does everyone want to know?

Related Topics:

• 4 July 2025 - Principality Stadium, Cardiff • 5 July 2025 - Principality Stadium, Cardiff • 11 July 2025 - Heaton Park, Manchester • 12 July 2025 - Heaton Park, Manchester • 19 July 2025 - Heaton Park, Manchester • 20 July 2025 - Heaton Park, Manchester • 25 July 2025 - Wembley Stadium, London • 26 July 2025 - Wembley Stadium, London • 2 August 2025 - Wembley Stadium, London • 3 August 2025 - Wembley Stadium, London • 8 August 2025 - Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh • 9 August 2025 - Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh • 16 August 2025 - Croke Park, Dublin • 17 August 2025 - Croke Park, Dublin

When do tickets go on sale and how can I get them?

All tickets will go on sale on Saturday 31 August. The Dublin dates will be on sale from 8am and the UK dates will go on sale at 9am .

🚨REGISTER FOR THE UK & IRELAND 2025 TOUR PRE-SALE BALLOT🚨 A ticket pre-sale will be held on Friday 30th August, ahead of Saturday’s general sale. To ensure the maximum number of fans have a fair opportunity to access tickets, applicants will be selected for the pre-sale via a… pic.twitter.com/spP24NemBV — Oasis (@oasis) August 27, 2024

But fans can now register to be in a pre-sale ballot until 7pm (UK time) on Wednesday.

Successful applicants in the ballot will be informed on Friday via email with full access information, however, this does not guarantee fans a ticket as they are still sold on a first come first served basis.

The band has warned fans on social media that confirmation emails for the ballot entry may be delayed due to a high volume of people signing up, but has assured them that anyone who has filled in a ballot correctly before the deadline will receive one.

Tickets for UK performances can be bought from the following sites:

• ticketmaster.co.uk • gigsandtours.com • www.seetickets.com

For the Ireland dates you need to go to ticketmaster.ie .

Be warned: you must register

The band's official website has "strongly advised" anyone hoping to purchase tickets to register in advance of the sale with the relevant ticket agencies.

Top tips for getting tickets

The ticket sites offer key advice for fans looking to have an edge over others in the race for in-demand tickets.

Here's a summary of their biggest tips:

• Don't wait until Saturday morning to register. This will mean you have plenty of time to get your account set up with all the right billing and delivery information • Verify your account. You have to add your phone number and confirm a one-time passcode with new accounts for protection. You only need to do it once • If you already have an account, double-check it. It's worth logging in before Saturday just to check you know your password, your delivery and billing information is all correct, and to ensure you've already completed your one-time passcode • Make sure your card details are already saved to avoid last-minute scrambling • Get your phones and laptops charged before the deadline • Make sure you're happy with your internet connection. Private WiFi is best, and if that isn't working, Ticketmaster advises using your mobile data over public WiFi, which it says is "usually the least reliable" • Don't refresh the page while in a waiting room. Ticketing sites use a queuing system when they get busy, meaning you get put in an online waiting room with other fans. They warn that refreshing the page won't move you further up the line, and that the page itself updates automatically. So once you're in, wait it out...

How many tickets can I buy and how expensive could they be?

You can get a maximum of four tickets per transaction, and you aren't permitted to sell them for more than you bought them for, according to event organisers.

The price of tickets hasn't been announced yet, though the Manchester Evening News has reported they are expected to exceed £100.

Read more: Cool Britannia: Life in the UK in the '90s A timeline of Britpop's most successful band

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Back in 2009, just over a month before Oasis split, the band performed at Wembley Stadium and charged £38.50 plus VAT (which at the time was 15%), meaning the total cost was just over £44.

When Sky News put those numbers into the Bank of England's inflation calculator, the total was £68.02 - which is still considered low nowadays.

Do you even deserve tickets?

Since the announcement, social media has been flooded by debate about who this concert is really for.

"What's your favourite B-side?" - an eligibility test being used by people who "were at Knebworth".

Die-hard Oasis fans who were there in the 90s will say they are the ones who most deserve to get their hands on tickets.

"Imagine waiting 15 years for Oasis to reform only to lose out on tickets to Chloe, 21 from Stockport who just wants to hear Wonderwall live", one X user posts.

In response, another writes: "Obsessed with all the men creating fictional young women who they might lose out on Oasis tickets to."

Analysis by Gemma Peplow , culture and entertainment reporter

"Like most kids, my parents influenced my music taste growing up, from Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner to the Rolling Stones.

"Kylie Minogue, obviously, was also a big feature in my cassette collection.

"But Oasis were the first band that felt like mine, not music I'd inherited.

"As a teenager I listened over and over, studied the album covers, and went on to see them live five times, each gig holding different memories and anecdotes. For those of us who grew up with them, they embodied our youth, the spirit of the '90s.

"But that doesn't mean these gigs belong to the older fans, which, like it or not, is the bracket I fall into now. You only have to see all the teenagers and younger adults at Liam's solo shows to see how Oasis's songs resonate with different generations. The music has stood the test of time, which can only be a good thing.

"Those gatekeeping fans are most likely the same as those complaining about how all music is rubbish these days. Well, you can't have it both ways.

"If I'm lucky enough to get tickets, I hope to be singing along with bucket-hat wearing fans of all ages."

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